Kyuubi's apprentice
by mrpeeples
Summary: On Naruto's eleventh Birthday, he is being beaten by a mob of men. Laying unconciouss, Naruto is taken into his mind by Kyuubi, who then does something unexpected. Naru/Hina, Changed rating to Tfor now and for language, I will hold of on lemons and gore until further notice with the ongoing attempt at censorship. Sasuke is OOC slightly.
1. Chapter 1

KYUUBI'S APPRENT ICE

**So I decided to rewrite the first chapter, and am thinking about rewriting a bunch of other chapters. Please let me know what you think, I really need to know. **

'thinking'

"talking"

"**kyuubi talking"**

'**Kyuubi thinking' **

Dislaimer: I do not, and will never, own Naruto or the characters. My writing is entirely fan-based, and I do not make a profit from it and the characters and story line all belong to Kishimoto. I don't like doing the disclaimer on all chapters, so here it is.

Chapter one: A master picks his Apprentice.

It was night out, well, technically it was early morning. It was October 10, 2:13 A.M. In a small, dilapidated apartment in the village hidden in the leaves, in the corner of the one bedroom sat a child. Eleven year old Naruto Uzumaki sat in the corner, cautiously waiting for something, anything.

It had been this way for the past three days. Naruto would stay awake all night, and sleep in his classes at the academy. Why you ask? It was nearing his birthday over those past three days, well today was his birthday. Why would he stay up all night on his birthdays? One word: survival.

The villagers had always hated him.

He didn't know why, but they always avoided him like he had the plague, or like he was some kind of leper, or a mass-murderer. Some of them even went as far as attacking him or kicking him in some way or another. However, since he joined the academy and started getting better with his skills, thanks to him having to outrun anbu and other ninja because of his pranks, he could usually avoid them. However, he had once been attacked on his birthday by a chuunin. He had barely gotten away, if it hadn't have been for the Hokage being so near by, and Naruto running into him trying to escape, he couldn't think of what could've happened. He shivered.

Ever since that night two years ago he stayed up all through the night the two days before, the day of, and the two days after his birthday. He could sleep in the academy, he was still the dead-last so it didn't really matter to him, also he would be in the presence of all the kids and the two chuunin instructors, Iruka and Mizuki, so he could relax and sleep.

He looked at the clock and said, "seven-thirty. I guess I'd better go ahead to the academy, I'll get there a little earlier than usual." He stood, walked over to his door, opened it, stepped out, turned back and locked the door. On the door was painted a message, 'die demon-spawn'.

Such was the life of Naruto Uzumaki. Hated and outcast for some reason that he didn't even know. As far as he was concerned, they only hated him because he was an orphan.

So why did he want to be a ninja in the first place?

Well, self-defense, and acknowledgment. He had not parents. No mother and no father. He never got to come home to the loving embrace of a mother. The loving praise of a proud father, or a home-cooked meal that he ate with a family that he didn't have.

Yes, most the time he was depressed. He was never encouraged, never praised. Only abused. Only abused.

He pretended to always be happy. It was a mask that he wore to cover his pain. He figured that if he pretended to be stupid the villagers might just laugh at him, instead of beat him. He really didn't think he could become hokage, he only shouted it so people would think him stupid. He really didn't think he possessed the skills necessary, he was the dead last after all. But maybe he was the deadlast because he had no parents. No family. He had no encouragement from the family he didn't have, and had no help from parents who could show him the ninja way, like most of the other students had. He couldn't help but wander, 'if I had parents, would I still be the dead-last.'

He was wrapped up in his thoughts as he turned from his door and made his way down to the street below. Today he needed to take the long way to the Academy, so that he wouldn't have to go through the main district of the village, where he would more than likely have a couple of ninja or villagers try to beat him.

'Why? Why do they hate me? Why do they always try to hurt me?' he asked himself, "Why do they always beat me?' Then he got angry, 'I've never done anything to them. Ever since I was a child they have hated me. A FUCKING CHILD. How dare they? I will become Hokage so they will have to acknowledge me, acknowledge my existence.'

He made it to the academy, walked in to his seat, and fell asleep. Iruka just sighed, he knew what happened around this time of year, and why Naruto always slept in class around this time. He had confronted Naruto about one time. He would never forget the look in Naruto's eyes. The look, not of a child, but of someone who had already experienced far too much in his short child-hood. A short childhood because Naruto was forced to grow up faster than the normal child, save Sasuke Uchiha who had had his whole family taken form him by his brother.

Later that day the blonde woke up. He went home, the long way around again. 'It' settled. Before I was just saying that I wanted to be Hokage so that all the ninja and villagers would laugh at me and maybe leave me alone. Now, however, I really want to be Hokage. No, I need to be Hokage. I will grow, from this point on to become the greatest Hokage ever, I will master all areas of a ninja's life, I will become the one hokage better than even the fourth Hokage. I will surpass all before me, I will lead Konoha into an era of lasting peace, and through this I will gain the one thing I've always needed, but never had: a family.'

Naruto made it to his apartment, he unlocked his door and went in. He went into his tiny kitchen and opened his cabinet door. "damn, out of Ramen" he said, "I should go to the store." He walked over to his door, henged into a normal looking brown haired civilian, and walked out and left to the store. Little did he know this one time, would change his life for ever.

At the store Naruto walked in, getting a shopping cart on his way in. He walked to the isle where the cupped ramen was and walked down the isle, putting his arm in the shelf, knocking all the ramen into his shopping cart as he walked by. He then went and grabbed some new milk. He walked to the register, waited for the lady to ring his groceries up, paid for them, thanking the hokage for the orphan allowance, and was walking out of the store with his groceries when a ninja walked in, followed by a group of civilians. Naruto was instantly on alert.

As he walked by, the ninja, probably chuunin, noticed something. "huh, that feels like someone is in a henge nearby." He turned and looked at Naruto. He put up the hand sign and said "release" and to Naruto's horror his henge disappeared.

'Damn it! I knew it was a bad idea to go shopping today. Stupid stomach, always getting me in trouble!' he mentally berated himself.

"well well well, what do we have hear. The demon-brat." said the ninja, drawing the attention of the crowd and all the cashiers to him.

"demon, you know you're not supposed to be in here, we forbade you from coming in" shouted the store manager.

"Is that so," said the ninja, "I guess there is certain _disciplinary _measures to be taken" said the ninja as he drew a kunai. The crowd showed their approval.

Naruto gulped. He dropped all of his groceries and made a B-line for the exit. As he was passing through the door, he ducked just as the kunai whizzed over his head. He ran down a small alley next to the store. This would've usually worked to avoid regular civilians, as he was fast enough to get in the alley before they saw him. However, he was not so fortunate today because the chuunin he was running from happened to be a tracking specialist.

'Hey brat" said the Ninja from on the other side of the garbage can he was hiding behind. Naruto jumped back, avoiding a downward slash from the ninja's second kunai.

He turned and ran out the other side of the alley. As he exited the alley he noticed it was getting dark out. He turned to the direction of the only place that could help him. No he couldn't go home, he was trying to make it to the Hokage. The only place safe enough for him to go to right now.

Luck was not on Naruto's side this night. The chuunin proved why he had acquired the rank by appearing in front of Naruto and landing a solid punch to Naruto's jaw, shattering it.

Naruto was thrown backwards, all the way to the entrance of the alleyway from earlier. As he lay there, jaw and head throbbing, he looked up and noticed, 'man, the moon is beautiful tonight.' He turned his head to his right, hearing the scuffling of feet. What he saw horrified him. At least thirty villagers were pouring through the alleyway. Some had knives or broken beer bottles. However, each one reeked of alcohol. He could smell it from twenty feet away. The chuunig appeared next to him and put his foot on Naruto's chest. Naruto looked up and got a good look at the man. He was about six feet tall, had shoulder length brown hair and was decently muscular. His headband was on his upper arm, and he had a sword strapped to his back, which he was currently pulling out.

"tonight, is the night you die for what you did 11 years ago…demon" said the ninja. As he plunged the sword into Naruto's shoulder. Naruto didn't scream. He wouldn't give the ninja the luxury of hearing him in pain.

The crowd cheered as they came up and started to beat him as well. Twenty agonizing minutes later Naruto was a broken and bloody mess. The chuunin said, "STOP! That's enough." He walked over to Naruto.

'What now,' thought the blonde.

"IT'S TIME TO END THIS BASTARD'S LIFE" shouted the ninja as he plunged his sword into Naruto's right lung.

The crowd had shouted their approval, but when they stopped to see the state the child was in, they remembered the Hokage's law and quickly fled the scene. The chuunin snickered and kicked Naruto into the middle of the pitch-black alleyway. The chuunin then said, "I'm not just a tracking specialist, I'm also very adept at keeping from being tracked." he then proceeded to put a cover seal on the alleyway, effectively blanketing the alleway in a few layers of Genjutsu that even Kurenai would be proud of. Effectively hiding Naruto from even some of the most experienced ninja. "you will die demon" said the chuunin as he walked away.

Naruto knew nothing but the feel of agonizing pain. As the darkness began to close in on his vision, all he could think was, 'why.' and then there was nothing.

'Why? Why do I live like this? Why do I put up with this? Am I still alive? It matters not, I should just end it? Yeah that sounds good' he was telling himself in his mind.

He suddenly awoke inside a dark place. He couldn't see, but then the turned to where a ominous dark red or orange light was coming from. He could see, from the light, that he was in what appeared to be a sewer. He felt a tug. A pull. As if he needed to go closer to the light.

"I guess this is what they mean by seeing a light at the end of the tunnel, but man this tunnel sucks balls." he said as he moved towards the light.

As he got closer, he could feel the density of the air increase. It was hot, humid, and hard to breathe. It felt….evil. He walked through the doorway at the end of the long hallway and saw quite a sight to behold. In this gigantic room was two gigantic doors. Like the doors to a cage. On these doors, near the point where they locked together, was a piece of paper that simply read, 'seal'. That's when Naruto noticed what was in the cage.

Two eyes, bigger than Naruto's body, red as the darkest blood, were staring at him from inside the cage. Then the cage was lit more, and he stood in awe at the beast before him. It stood, and was at least 25 stories tall. It was massive. A fox, with….nine tails.

"HOLY FUCKING SHIT…THE NINE TAILS….I THOUGHT YOU WERE DEFEATED BY THE FOURTH HOKAGE" shouted the blonde.

At the mention of the fourth, the fox lunged at the bars, pushing his giant claws through the bars towards the blonde. **"I will shred you to pieces if you mention that name again."**

"Where am I and what the hell are you doing here", asked the blonde.

"**We are inside a combination of your mind and the seal on your stomach, Naruto"**, said the fox.

"Wait, did you say the seal on my stomach. So that means that….." Naruto got horrified look on his face.

"**Correct! I, the nine-tailed demon fox, Kyuubi, was not killed by that Fourth hokage of yours. No, he sealed me inside an infant that night. The night of October 10, eleven years ago. I am sealed inside of you Naruto."** said Kyuubi.

"Really," said the blonde. "So that's why most of the villagers hate me and try to kill me."

"**Yes. They do not realize that you are the only thing standing in the way of me killing them all. They see you as me, and not my jailor. But that is the reason that I pulled you here, for one, you almost died, taking me with you. So right now my chakra is healing you. Second, I am not going to go on like this." **said the Kyuubi.

"what do you mean….wait, if I kill myself I can take you out of this world" said Naruto.

"**no, I would simply disappear for 100 years, I would return. But I don't want to wait one hundred years because I was sealed inside some weak fool. It's time that I take you on as my personal apprentice. What say you?" **said that fox.

"I say what do you want" asked the blonde.

"**Could you make the cage a little bit bigger" **asked Kyuubi.

"sure" said Naruto as he focused and the cage the kyuubi was in expanded 100 times and the inside transformed into a forest.

"**All right brat, here's what we're going to do, you're going to go home and go to sleep, while in your sleep I'm going to plant some of my knowledge into you. This will, at first help you with history and some of the basic skills necessary to become a genin or chuunin. It will also serve to get your brain used to taking in the information at a faster pace" **said the fox.

"all right" said Naruto.

"**Get going" **said the fox.

Naruto awoke with a deep inhale of breath.

He took off the shirt he was wearing and saw a scar on his chest, over the spot he had been stabbed. He noticed he was still in the alleyway near the grocery store. He got up and ran to the hokage's home. He was at the gate outside, furiously pressing the button to get the attention of the guards. One came on the radio, "what is it"

"I need to speak to the hokage, it is urgent" said the blonde.

"what is the purpose" said the guard.

"never mind that, I can't tell you" said the blonde.

There was silence.

Then the hokage came on the speaker, "yes, who is this"

"it is Naruto Uzumaki, and I have an emergency" said the blonde.

"Naruto.." the gate buzzed and Naruto went in the now unlocked gate, an anbu appeared, put a hand on Naruto's sholder, and they body-flickered into the house of the hokage.

Once inside, the blonde told the hokage of the beating he received, but didn't tell him of how he encountered the fox.

"All right, I'm going to place a seal on your apartment. It will be of top-notch ability and it will only be opened by your blood. So it will be more safe. Let's go" said the hokage.

Thirty minutes later the blonde crawled into bed, with his clothes still on, and fell asleep, not knowing how much knowledge the fox was going to give him.

**Ok that's it for the chapter one re-write. Let me know if you like how I rewrote the first chapter please. **


	2. Training results already?

The next morning our favorite blond knuckle-head woke up thirty minutes before he usually did.

'Well, I guess I'll go ahead and take a shower', he thought as he jumped out of bed. The second his feet touched the floor his head started to feel like someone had hit him with an axe. His hands, on instinct, flew up to cup his head as he yelled out, "ow, what the fuck is this shit….kyuubi what the hell" he said as he collapsed on the floor. His eyes stared blank as his mind ran through all the new memories that he acquired as blood started to ooze out of his nose and mouth. He awoke five minutes later feeling drained and ready to pass out. He pulled himself into the bathroom and looked at himself in the mirror. He looked pale and had blood all over his face.

"What the hell…I'll go take a shower, that should make me feel better" he said.

He took a pleasant shower, and true to his assumption he did feel better. He got dressed, ate some toast, brushed his teeth and left for the academy. "Today I'll renew my efforts to become the Hokage, I will now actually apply myself in class. I have a year left, I can make the best of it, I know I can," he said.

Ten minutes later found our hero walking into the academy. All heads turned to him, for he had never, ever ever been on time.

The first to recover was Sakura, "hey baka, you're early for once, did you finally learn how to read a map to get here," asked Sakura.

Naruto had had it, he thought, 'I'm done with this bitch. I only wanted her for two reasons. 1) she was popular, and by getting her I could possibly get more friends. 2) She's aggressive towards me, which up until now I was too stupid to realize was a bad thing. Being so lonely I took it as affection.' He then said "No, I just got over the stench that you give off forehead-san."

Everyone in the class snickered a little, even Uchiha, the emo dipshit, had a small grin on his face.

"but, but, but…why would you say that, don't you like me or something baka?"

"I only like you for simple petty reasons. I had some more time to think, and actually did, and realized how much I don't like you like that. Now, we could possibly become friends in the future, but I will never look at you like that again," he said.

"sheesh like I care about what you think idiot" she retorted.

"I could care less" said Naruto as he took only seat that was left open.

This happened to be the seat next to Hinata Hyuuga. 'Hmm, Hinata, she is shy, nice, and has never treated me bad. She's even very cute. Wait, did I just say that' he thought.

"Hey there, I know we've met before, but I think I should introduce myself again. I'm Naruto Uzumaki, future hokage of Konoha. " he said as he held out his hand.

"a-a-a-a-and i-i—I'm Hinata-h-h-h-hyuuga., h-h-hh-eress to the Hy-u-u-uga clan." She said as she held out a hand, "n-n-n-n-n-nice to m-m-meet you".

He took her and and said, "the pleasure is all mine" then he bent down and kissed her hand, which caused her, already dark red face, to drop, signifying that she had just fainted. 'Oh well, I guess I'll let her sleep' he thought as he repositioned her to a more comfortable position on her desk.

Naruto shut his eyes to think a little bit. 'Okay, now that I truly am going to become more serious, I will have to outline a plan for how I'm going to go about getting stronger' He felt a pull at the back of his head before he was pulled into his mind by kyuubi. "What the hell Kyuubi, I was thinking" he said.

The great fox looked at him from inside of the cage, "oh you were, that's new".

"oh shut it, what do you need" asked the blonde.

"Just to tell you to be weary of some of your comrades" said the fox.

"Whatever sure…but I have a question for you" said the blonde.

"What is it" asked the fox.

"We need to come up with a plan for us to get stronger"

"Us, I the great demon fox, am strong enough without you"

"Oh really? How about I kill myself and make you wait 100 years before you can return, also you will be weakned becuaes bijuu are weaker without a container. Also, you're stuck inside me, so my strength directly reflects on you. I am like the limiting reaction in a chain of reactions. The whole can not be faster than me. Us together can not really be stronger than I am."

"Oh really, how so?"

"Even though I could probably use your powers, I would, from the memories you gave me, leave me in a weekend state where someone could possibly kill me, that is just one example"

"Whatever brat, just wake up your teacher is about to be here"

"Okay" with that Naruto returned to the world of the living.

He noticed Hinata was awake and looking at him with concern in her eyes. "What's wrong Hinata-chan?"

"Sorry, but you looked a little out of it. I've been trying to talk to you for ten minutes and you didn't respond. Are you okay?" Said the Hyuuga.

"Yeah I'm fine, just meditating you know. Got lost in my own little happy place" he said and smiled at her. She nodded.

That's when Iruka walked into the room and looked at his students and said, "Okay you kids, we have a test today…so get ready"

"Oh shit" said Naruto.

Iruka passed out the test and Naruto looked at it.

'Wow, these are easy. First Hokage, Hashirama Senju, Second was his little brother Tobirama, Thirs is JIji Sarutobi Hiruzen, fourth….Minao Namikaze, the yellow flash. Okay, who won the battle at the valley of the end, Hashirama of course. Who was Madara Uchiha, founder of the uchiha clan and co-founder of the village hidden in the leaves.' The test continued in a similar fashion. Naruto answered every question with ease, even the science and math ones. 'Fourth derivative of x to the fourth? 24 of course'

Naruto finished the test, waked up to Iruka, and handed it in. "Done already Naruto, what is this"

Naruto said, "your answer Key…made a 100"

Iruka looked skeptically towards the smirking blonde. "whatever you say, are you sure you don't want more time to work on your test?"

"Nah, I'm pretty sure I got it in the bag, so what's next?" he asked

"We will go outside to have an accuracy in throwing competition" said Iruka.

"Allright" said Naruto.

Later, after the test was over the class went outside.

"Good luck Hinata-chun" said Naruto.

"Y-y-y-you too N-n-naruto-kun" she said.

'Man she stutters a lot' thought Naruto.

"Allright everyone, lets get this over with. In front of you are human shaped targets with the appropriate points. Ready your projectiles and let em go" he said as everyone let their weapons fly.

What followed shocked everyone.

Naruto had used all but one of his projectiles to land in the dead center. "hey Iruka sensei, I don't think there is enough room left for my laast kunai to fit inside the bullseye"

Everyone looked and their jaws dropped.

Naruto had all of his kunais, except the one in his hand, bunched up in the bullseye. No one, not even Sasuke, came close to this kind of accuracy.

"Welll Naruto, if that was a real opponent what would you do" he asked.

Naruto while talking to Iruka was turned 90 degees from the human shaped target, where the bullseye was above the heart, said, "this" as he threw the Kunai sideways. It flew quickly through the air and landed point first into a tiny little red dot at the center of the forehead of the dummy.

"Well Naruto, there have only been a few people to hit that one-in-a-million shot most recently was Uchiha Itachi, the one before that was the fourth Hokage. Congratulations, if you continue to perform this was you might catch up and tie Sasuke for rookie of the year." Said Iruka.

At the mention of Itachi all eyes, Nartuo's included, turend to Sasuke. Everyone knew what had happened. Naruto saw something he didn't think he would see in another person. He saw the same eyes. Those lonely, lost, desperate eyes. 'All this time I've been caught up in being jealous of the guy, I didn't realize he has the most In common with me. He goes home to and empty house just like me. However, in some repects he's worse off than me. He had to watch as his brother butchered his family. He had them, but now they are gone. I don't even know how that would feel' thought the blonde.

"allright, that is enough for today, let's go back in and have lunch, lecture, then I'll pass back the test grades" said Iruka.

"How did you grade them while you were out here with us" asked Sakura.

"For such a book-smart person you really are dumb, although most of you don't know it. There is a jutstu that allows you to..nevermind…it's just a variant of the clone jutsu" said Naruto."

"Whatever" said Sakura.

Naruto walked over to Sasuke, "hey man, good aiming. I noticed something, we both are at the top in the aiming, wanna train with me after class some time, I live alone with no family so I have tons of free time"

Sasuke looked at Naruto and his mouth dropped, 'this guy might actually be able to relate to me a little, and he can help me get stronger' "Sure," said the Uchiha.

"I look forward to it" Naruto said.

The class went back inside and sat down. They were passed back there test and Naruto, true to his word, had a 100.

"Class, I'm disappointed in you. This was supposed to be an easier test, but you all the clunked out on it. Except a few. The only ones to do truly well were: Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura, Hinata, and Shino. Naruto, just like he said, had a 100".

Sakura stood up, "he obviously cheated off of Hinata, he's sitting right next to her"

Naruto stood up and said, "and you're sitting right next to Sasuke, did you cheat off of him" he asked.

"Naruto, who are the Sannin?" 

"You Mean the toad perv, the medic sucker, and the snake traitor…I mean…Jaraiya, Tsunade, and Orochimaru"

"Yeah….what was the first Hokage's unique element"

"Didn't really have one. He had the combination of two natures and was able to manipulate them at the same time. He used earth and water" he said.

"Okay, I think we all can say that Naruto got a 100. Okay everyone, sit down, shut up and I'm gonna lecture a little more about history."

The lecture was interesting, and Naruto even asked questions and made some corrections to the lecture, which kinda annoyed Iruka in an older brother kinda way.

As they were leaving, Naruto went over to Hinata. "Hey you wanna train with me tomorrow after class. Today I gotta go home and do some things"

'Naruto-kun wants to train with me…don't faint don't faint don't faint.' Hinata didn't trust her voice so she simply nodded.

"Great" he said as he took off to his apartment.

'I wander what Fur-ball will have in store for me today' he wandered.

He went into his apartment and went to his bed, sat on it in the lotus position and went into his mind.

"Hey Kyu, how you doin" asked the blonde.

"I'm a being of infinite power and I'm stuck inside a little kid, how do you think I feel" he asked.

"You should feel better after I made the cage 100 times larger and turned the inside into a forrest" he said.

"Touché" said the fox.

"Anyways, what do you have planned for today fox," asked the blonde.

"Basically the same as yesterday, except tonight I'm going to focus on Justu rather than history and throwing kunai." Said the fox.

"all right, but down over due it. Don't wanna turn my brain into jelly now do we" said the Blonde.

"not at all," said the fox "now go to sleep"

"All right" and with that Naruto left his mindscape and then went to sleep.


	3. A day with Hinata, A night with Kyuubi

Kyuubi's Apprentice

Thanks everyone for the reviews so far, I'm going to try to avoid making a 'super-Naruto' but he will be better than he was, remember kyuubi said he would Train naruto at the same pace as the academy, so he will probably just go up in the rankings in his class. Oh, and yes towardsthesun, it was because of the short chapters that I posted two at the same time, I have been thinking about doing this one, and so, I actually started on it at two in the morning, so I was tired. Oh! Did I mention this is my very first fanfic. On with the story.

Chapter 3: A day with Hinata

Naruto was dragging Hinata by the hand to a training field. That is, until he heard a rumbling sound. Shocked, he turned around and looked at Hinata. "Hinata, what was that" he asked.

Hinata blushed and said, "I-I d-don't know what y-your talking a-about N-n-naruto-k-kun" she said, as if on que there was another rumble heard, this time much, much louder and Naruto knew where it was from this time. He starts to laugh rather loudly. "Wow, Hinata, I didn't know you had such a large appetite" said the blonde.

She blushed, and said, "Yeah, m-my lunch didn't r-really fill me u-up, d-don't w-worry a-about me, let's keep going t-to train." she said.

"Nonsense, I know just the place" he said, and he grabbed her hand again, and did a 180 turn around and went in the other direction. The direction of Naruto's favorite Ramen stand. When Hinata saw the ramen stand she had one thought 'oh, what a let down'. They went in the shop and both Teuchi and Ayame said in unison, "Naruto, how are you today".

The blonde replied, "Oh I'm fine, my friend here is really hungry, so we're stopping by, ummmm…..I'll have the usual, two bowls of miso pork ramen please."

They took Naruto's order and turned their heads to Hinata.

"Ummmm, I guess I'll have what h-h-he's h-h-having." she said.

She was thiking to herself, 'oh this is gonna suck, the ramen the cooks at the Hyuuga compound make just sucks'. She asks Naruto, "N-n-naruto-k-k-kun, I-I-Is this ramen as good as you always s-s-s-say it is" she asks.

"Of course it is, what do you think gave me the brain power to make a 100 on that test?" he said, "and what's with all this stuttering, do you have a problem with me or something, cuz I thought we were pretty good friends Hinata-chan".

'pretty good friends?….Chan?….hmmmm…don't faint, don't faint, don't faint', "Ummm. S-s-sorry n-n-naruto-k-kun, I can't help it." she said.

"Well, I'll help you with your stutter" he said.

She thought, 'you've already helped me a lot', she said, "thank you, Naruto-kun."

A moment later their orders were in front of them, they took the chop sticks, broke them apart, and said, thanks (sorry, I don't know the Japanese word, but you get the drift).

Naruto looked at Hinata when she took her first bit of the Ramen. He then looked down at his bowl, he looked back at Hinata and was surprised to find that her bowl was completely empty.

His jaw dropped, "HINATA! Do they even feed you at the Hyuuga house?" he exclaimed.

"Yeah, but the ramen our cooks make is awful, this ramen is simply amazing" she said. Then she thought, 'wow, didn't stutter once, this is gonna be good'.

"Could I have a-another bowl please" said the Hyuuga girl.

"Sure, coming right up" said Teuchi.

"Well Hinata-chan, try to eat it a little slower this time, you probably almost inhaled the bowl last time, and I thought I ate fast."

The girl blushes, "Well, it is some really good stuff." The next bowl was placed in front of the girl. They finished their meal and they just talked as if they had been properly introduced friends for years. They both enjoyed the company, and when they finished Naruto paid using both a one meal free, and a one meal half off coupon. Usually Teuchi wouldn't accept two coupons from the same customer, but he bent the rule a little for his favorite and most loyal customer, especially since it seems he just got another loyal customer.

Naruto started, "Well Hinata," she gave her attention to him, "you ready to go and train our butts off".

She nodded, "thanks for the Ramen" she said to Teuchi and Ayame, who nodded and said, "have fun training".

The two walked out, "Hey dad" said Ayame. "Yes Ayame" he replied. "Do you think they'll wind up (she help up a pinkie) going out in the future". Teuchi laughs, "maybe, yeah, our little Naruto is growing up isn't he" and Ayame nodded.

Out in the streets of Konoha, Naruto and Hinata were walking side-by-side to a training ground. "Say N-naruto, what all are we gonna do today?" said Hinata.

"Well, I was maybe thinking some taijutsu sparring, and then some chakra control exercises after that" he said, "how does that sound Hinata-chan?"

"That sounds great" she said. Thinking, 'I'm just glad to be spending time with you.' Little did little miss Hinata know, but Naruto was thinking something similar, 'I'm just glad I wont be spending the entire rest of the day by myself, like I usually do, this way maybe I wont be singled out and beaten again'.

They were now at the training ground and were doing there warm-ups. Just then out of the trees came two other kids, apparently being a year older than Naruto and Hinata. They were just ordinary looking academy students, who were probably about to be genin. One started, "Hey! This is our training ground, leave now or we'll make you" one demanded.

"Yeah, this is where we come to train" said the other.

Naruto replied, "don't you mean this is where you come to kiss".

This flustered the other two, "all right, that's it, your gonna get it now."

They ran at Naruto and Hinata, Naruto told Hinata to "take the one on the right, and I'll take the one on the left." She nodded, and activated her Byakugan, which slightly surprised Naruto, because he'd never seen it. Naruto dodged some kunai, by jumping to the side, he made 2 shadow clones, then Naruto thanked the kyuubi in his head for letting this be one of his Justus, he liked it quite a lot. His clones then ran at the boy, he dispelled them almost effortlessly, but soon noticed his folly. He was surrounded by the smoke they left when they disperse, and now he couldn't see. All of a sudden, the boy was being punched and kicked from all directions, soon, he was left a mess on the floor. Hinata was having similar success; she, for some reason, felt more confident in herself with Naruto around. This, combined with her still developing gentle fist, makes for one unlucky opponent. The boy didn't know what hit him, he stepped in her range and her, "Gentle Fist: 32 palms!". The child was hit with a barrage of gentle fist hits, and he too was left on the ground. They looked upat Naruto, grinning real big, and Hinata who was giggling slightly. Naruto spoke first, "I think you should leave now.", then they just stubbornly stayed on the ground.

All of a sudden, there was a scream, "Ahhhhhhhhhhh, we just beat the crap out of you, LEAVE NOW OR WHAT I DO TO YOU WILL MAKE WHAT WE JUST DID, LOOK LIKE A FLEA BITE!"

Everyone, especially Naruto, was surprised at the sudden outburst from Hinata. The two boys laid there, looking shocked, then Hinata cracked her knuckles, and the two boys quickly jumped up and ran off, screaming "Sorry!"

.

Naruto said, "Wow Hinata, that was amazing!"

"Well, they were just getting annoying." she said, then thought, 'they were getting in the way of my time with you, Naruto-kun.

"So Hinata-chan, that was an 'extended' warm up I guess, you ready to get started?" said Naruto.

Hinata said, "Yes Naruto-kun, let's get started."

"First off Hinata-chan, I want to make this session a little more productive" said Naruto,

"so I'm gonna teach you a technique that will allow our training time to be dramatically reduced, I found out there usefulness when training with them one day" said Naruto.

"What is it Naruto-kun?" asked Hinata.

"The shadow clone jutsu" he said.

"I don't know Naruto-kun, I don't think I'll be able t-t-to d-d-d-do I-I-I-it" she said.

"No Hinata, keep that confidence you had a moment ago, I'm positive you'll be able to learn it." said Naruto, "Besides, it can't hurt to try." She nodded.

"Okay, here's the hand sign" he showed the infamous hand sign, "now here is….." he explains all the principles of doing the shadow clone. She practiced it, and on her 10th try mastered it. Which was to Naruto's surprise.

"Wow Hinata-chan, you mastered it in 10 tries, which took five minutes, it took me 100s of tries, and many hours to get it, even training with the…owwww" he said as his head hurt before he could say the fox's name. He thought to himself, 'oh, I guess Kyuubi doesn't want to be revealed to anyone yet'.

Hianta said, "Naruto-kun, are you okay?"

"umm yeah, I just got a little head ache, anyways, this is great that you can do shadow clones, so now, make as many as you can." She made 5. "Wow Hinata, considering this is an upper level jutsu,, that's impressive." She smiled widely at this and chuckled, then said, "thank you Naruto-kun".

"Don't mention it…but you need to know the drawbacks of your shadow clones as compared to mine" he said.

"What drawbacks" she asked."well, you have way smaller chakra reserves than me…you have such good chakra control that you were able to make 10 shadow clones with the bare minimum chakra. Your clones are, for all intensive purposes, just clones…I mean, they are way weaker and more susceptible to attacks than mine are, they can't last as long, and won't be able to do as many activities. However, for things like chakra control exercises, which you don't need much of as it is, and exercises to get the techniques, then they will still help you" he said.

"Oh" she said, "I understand."

Naruto then said, "well, we only need three clones, so just let two go okay, " she did.

Naruto spoke, "Now have three of them meditate, and you and I are going to do some taijutsu sparring. But first, let me do something," he picked up six leaves and handed one to each of her three clones, and each of his three clones he just made. "Put these on your foreheads, and focus some chakra there to make it stick, while meditating, this will help with you calm of mind, and your chakra control." they all nodded.

Naruto and Hinata walked a good distance away so as to not disturb the clones meditating. "This should be far enough", said Naruto. She nodded. "Well Hianta, let's spar now, and use that Gentle fist stuff please."

She asked, "Are you sure N-naruto-k-kun."

He chuckled and said, "yes. Let's just say it will be more incentive for me to dodge and not get hit, I wish I could do that stuff so I could give you the same incentive. Oh well." She nodded, activated her Byakugan and got down in her stance. Naruto used a stance he remembered from Kyuubi. Well, they began, Naruto threw a couple punches at Hinata, who easily dodge and gave a gentle strike to both Naruto's shoulders, he countered by kicking her in the thigh. She jumped to the side and did a one handed cartwheel thing to transfer the momentum of the kick, but it still hurt.

"You're pretty good, Hinata-chan." said Naruto.

"You're not so bad yourself, Naruto-kun" said Hinata.

They sparred for about two and a half hours and then they noticed the light was fading fast. So Naruto said, "wait, it's getting dark out, we need to head home now".

"Okay Naruto-kun, by the way, how are the clones going to help us now." she said.

Naruto said, "Well, just dispel them,".

She nodded, held up the hand sign, and said, "release". The memories, and experiences of her clones came back to her. She said, "Wow Naruto-kun, that is amazing."

He said, "I know it is, so Hinata-chan, could I walk you home."

She thought to herself, 'oh kami, he's asking me if he can walk me home….don't faint don't faint don't faint don't faint' "Yes, I would like that Naruto-kun."

"Great!" exclaimed the blonde.

They walked to her house talking of there training experience, and saying things along the lines of "oh and then you did this, and I did that" and things along that sort. They reached her house. Then an awkward silence befell them.

"Well…..Hinata-chan….I guess I'll see you tomorrow", said Naruto.

"ummm..yeah, see you Naruto-kun." they waved bye, and then the realization of the day hit Hianta, she thought to herself, 'wow, I lasted a lot of the day and didn't stutter so much as I usually do, wait, I have spent this entire day with Naruto-kun, we sat next to each other in class, in recess, went to Ichiraku Ramen together, and trained together for like three hours.' She got a deep red tint to her face, she ran to her room and to her bed just before she fainted with a big smile on her face, and said in her sleep, "Naruto-kun..".

Naruto on the other hand, was wandering what training the kyuubi would have in store for him. When he got to his apartment, he went in his mind. "Hey kyuubi, how you doing?"

The fox replied, "I'm okay, although I wish I had more room in here."

Naruto said, here let me fix that, Naruto sat down and concentrated, all of a sudden the kyuubi's cage increased ten fold in volume. This surprised the kyuubi, "wow brat, that was the nicest thing anyone's ever done for me, this is hard for me to say, but thanks."

"Whatever kyuubi, anyways, what kind of training are we doing tonight", asked the kid.

"None", replied the Kyuubi. Naruto started to speak but was interrupted, "but-" "before you start what I meant was that you are going to make a shadow clone with some of my chakra in the clones seal, so I am in there with it, then, YOU'RE going to sleep. In the morning I will have the clone dispel and send you it's memories. Okay".

"Oh, I get it" said Naruto, and continued, "Shadow Clone Jutsu" he looked at the clone and said, "you know what to do." Then Naruto went to his bead and went to sleep. (for the sake of simplicity, from right now on we will refer to the clone as being Naruto.)

The other Naruto sat down and got into a meditative posture, and went back to his mindscape. Naruto then asked, "so what are WE doing tonight Kyuubi".

"Well, brat, I saw through your eyes your test today, good job, and good job showing up that Uchiha brat."

The blonde replied, "yeah, well, I kind of didn't to show him up, it just happened, it still felt good though. I want to get to know Sasuke, he has my eyes. The eyes of a lonely person. I didn't even know until I looked at him one day as he was leaving class, his eyes looked like mine when I looked myself in the mirror. I don't, I just think maybe we could be friends."

The fox said, "whatever brat, I don't like any Uchiha, for personal reasons, whether you befriend him or not is not my concern unless it somehow comes to where it endangers me."

"Whatever, so what are we doing tonight" said the blonde.

"well, first of all, let me explain something to you, in your mindscape, we can do things as if it is a dream, we can slow down time here, you notice you sometimes dream a one month time frame in one night. So we're gonna train for a week in one night"

"What, don't you think that will be a little extreme, especially for the memories going back to me when I wake up, you don't think it will make me pass out will you." said the blonde.

"Mmmm…good point, I guess we can train for one day, I didn't take into account you mental capacity to receive a whole week of memories at one time. Your brain might have 'exploded', heyyyyyy that would've been bad for the both of us kid HAHAHAHAHAHAHA" Naruto sweat drops, 'is this guy really that strong'. "Okay Kyuubi, let's get started." Said Naruto.

The fox stops laughing, "Okay, okay, but first I need to do something." The fox closed it's eyes and went silent, some of it's chakra leaked through the cage, and from the sewer rose a small version of the fox. Naruto was stunned.

"Whoa, that's cool." said Naruto.

The fox replied, "oh then you'll think this is amazing." said the fox as a bright light enveloped it's body, and the body molded into the form of a human.

Naruto exclaimed, "Wow Kyuubi, I didn't know you could do that!".

The fox was now a 6 foot 5 incgh tall man, with brown hair that was down to his shoulders, he was really muscular, and had no shirt on, showing his eight pack abs and chizzled chest. The fox replied, "Not too many people do…now we're gonna do some hands on hand-to-hand taijutsu training."

Naruto sweat dropped, "isn't that gonna dispel my clone."

The kyuubi laughed, "no kid, this is your mindscape, you'll feel pain and get the experience, but your clone wont dispel, that is analogous to saying if I die in my dream I die in real life, well, there is a jutsu for that, but that's besides the point.(small pause) Just shut up and fight me."

They got into a stance, kyuubi got down, he put his left leg forward and his right leg back, he squated down slightly he put his left arm forward and his right arm back, his front hand was held palms out, and his right hand was laying horizontally. 'This is similar to Hinata's gentle fist stance', Naruto thought. Naruto got down into a very basic, almost elementary stance with his feet shoulder width apart, and his left side turned to the front, (this is similar to modern day stances for stuff like boxing and all that good stuff). Naruto charged at Kyuubi, and yelled, "you're mine". Kyuubie smirked, "I don't think so".

Naruto threw a punch at Kyuubi, only to have Kyuubi block with his front hand, knocking Naruto to kyuubi's left; Kyuubi, at the same time, turned and crashed his hand into the side of Naruto's head. The blonde was knocked to the grounded and let out a scream of pain. Then the boy said, "What style is that?" To which the kyuubi replied, "Why the Fox style of course (Naruto gives a 'your kidding me' look) don't give me that look, I developed the style, and it is very powerful. In fact, it is the style that the Hyuuga's derived there Gentle fist from."

Naruto was surprised, "Really?" The kyuubi nodded, "yup, but the difference is that, as you can feel from your head, this style isn't all that gentle. AND, I will be teaching it to you. However, this style is one of the best styles for one main reason."

The boy looked at the kyuubi. "Well what reason is that."

The kyuubi began "Well, to put it simply, you don't really have to get down in the stance, I just did to show you what it looks like, and to illustrate that the style is where the Gentle fist was born, my technique can best be described as the 'brute-fist'. Ohhhhhhh I digress, the point is that you don't have to get down in the stance. One major advantage of this is that you don't announce your intentions of attacking, getting in a stance kinda screams, 'I'm gonna attack'. So you will learn this technique, are you excited yet?"

The boy replied, "oh yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes."

The fox then said, "good to see you're excited, now hold still while I put these seals on you." The kyuubi put a seal on each of Naruto's wrists, ankles and then one around the boy's waist, and abdomen. The Kyuubi then looked at naruto and smirked, he put his hands together in some weird symbol and said, "seal style: weighted training seal jutsu". Just then each weight on his ankles and wrists became 20 pounds, while the ones on his waist became 50 pounds (total of 130). The kyuubi smiled and said, "how do you feel kid".

The blonde replied, "HOW DO YOU THINK, I FEEL HEAVY!", the boy calmed then continued, "hey kyuubi, how is this gonna train my body, were only inside the mindscape of a clone".

The kyuubi got very irritated, "listen, don't question me on this one, cuz it would take days to explain just the beginning principal on how the strength and endurance gained during this transfers to your original body, on top of that, you're an idiot, so it would probably take years to get you to understand, so don't ask, just do, remember, I'M the one training you".

"S-s-s-sorry K-kyuubi-s-s-sensei", said Naruto.

"Don't call me sensei, just kyuubi." said the fox.

"h-h-haii" said Naruot.

"good, now before we can do any form training you have to get stronger and faster, more flexible, basically, you have to become way more in shape than any other ninja in your class, which is why we are using these weights." he paused, "now, give me 250 pushups: then 250 sit-ups; then 250 squats, go low enough so your ass touches your ankles, then come up fast; then give me 250 pull ups, then finish it off with a five mile jog."

The blonde paled, "Are you trying to kill me".

"no, I'm trying to make you stronger and save you in the process, I never said, however, that won't be coming close to death during this training, but don't worry, I'm here, I'll keep that from happening." the fox laughed, the roared, "NOW GET STARTED BRAT!"


	4. A day as Naruto Uzumaki

Kyuubi's Apprentice

Thanks for the reviews, I will try to add some plot twists, but keep in mind I am writing this while in college, not an excuse I know, but I have to do work on my research paper. Anyways, yeah, I plan on trying to…never mind, you will all find out soon enough. Be patient, and be warned, I may come to some time skips….so yeah, go with it I guess.

And people, I suggest going and reading a couple of Uzumaki Ricky's stories, especially the one, "Naruto: life of a shy jinchuuriki"

Chapter 4: Another day as Naruto Uzumaki.

Naruto woke up the next morning. He stretched and yawned at the same time, got out of bed and went to the bathroom. He did the usual morning piss, washed his hands, and came back out. Then he stopped midway to the door to his room and looked to his right. There, still sitting in the floor was his clone

He thought to himself, 'wow, I thought my clone would have dispelled by now.'

He walked over to the clone and said, "Hey, you can wake up now". Nothing. "HEY'' he shouted. Still no response. He poked the clone in the left shoulder, the clone began to tilt to the side and fall over, right before it hit the ground, it dispelled.

Immediately Naruto felt a surge of pain unlike anything he had ever felt before, short of nearly being killed by the villagers the other night. He screamed, "Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, what the fuck kyuubi. !"

Just then he felt the pain start to subside. Then the kyuubi spoke in Naruto's mind, "hey, I told you that you would come close to death in my training, did I not?" Said the fox, and he started chuckling.

"Kyuubi, what the fuck is wrong with you. I'm an eleven year old…oh what the hell ever, just so long as your damn chakra heals me, I'm okay with it." he said.

The fox chuckled, "well kid it is actually a good thing. You see, I was planning on having your muscles increase in strength exponentially." To the word exponentially, Naruto started but was cut off "wha-"… "it means increasing REALLY fast….anyways, the basis behind muscle building is using muscles to exhaust them, better known as 'breaking them down' and then healing them, which makes them better accommodate the stress that caused it to 'break down' in the first place, this process of healing is usually referred to as 'building muscle' or whatever. You get the picture."

The blonde thought, "Oh, so you're going to help me by both break my muscle down to an extreme low, and use your chakra to rebuild it, thus making it stronger faster?"

The fox replied, "wow kid, you're actually getting it, oh and before you asks, it turns out the method to return physical experience to the original is complicated, I thought it might be too complicated for you to know how to do by now, so I just used a jutsu to do it….now you have only got thirty minutes, I suggest you take that time to get ready and go to the academy."

Naruto jumped up and ran into the bathroom and took a shower. He looked into the mirror and saw that his body no longer had so much 'baby fat' and was now a little more lean. It wasn't 'ripped' but it wasn't chubby either, in fact, it was pretty hard looking. He then brushed his teeth, ate some ramen, brushed his teeth again, and ran to the academy. He got in the class just in time.

As soon as he got in the door, half the girls in the class shouted in unison, "Naruto-kunnnnn!"

Naruto looked around to find himself surrounded by half the girls in the class. He sweat dropped, and thought 'what the hell is this, autograph day'.

The crowd was saying things along the lines of "I'll make you Ramen" and "Can we go on a date" and etc. etc. etc.

Naruto wondered, 'is this how Sasuke feels, damn, I'm not that envious of him anymore.' Naruto quickly looked around and saw that, thankfully, the seat next to Hinata was still empty. Naruto made a mad dash for the chair and practically dived into it, then hid behind Hianta. "Hianta-chan hide me, they're weirding me out!" The girls shot Hinata venomous glares, and were ready to pounce when Iruka came in.

Iruka yelled, "alright, alright, quit going all crazy over Naruto like you do Sasuke. Now get back to your seats. We're having a guests speaker today." The room suddenly got quiet with anticipation. Iruka said, "Our guest speaker today is a great ninja, one of the greatest even, his sensei was the third hokage, he himself was the sensei of the legendary fourth hokage (this got gasps) and he is the author of a hosts of books. He is one of the three legendary Sannin, he is, Master Jaraiya."

The crowd applauded. When the applause stopped, Jaraiya spoke up, "Now class, what is it that makes a Ninja great." Sasuke rose his hand. "Yes, and who are you."

"I'm Sasuke Uchiha, and the answer to your question is ambition. Ambition is what drives ninja to be great."

Jaraiya smirked, "that may be a good motive, but what is it that helps the ninja achieve his goals, what keeps him going." the Uchiha once again rose his hand. "Yes." said jaraiya. "Revenge" said Sasuke.

Jaraiya sternly said, "no, revenge is born of hatred, and breeds only more hatred….anyone else." everyone except Naruto and Hinata were surprised the Uchiha was dismissed so thoroughly. Many people kept trying to answer, but just when Jaraiya was about to give up and give the answer, he saw one last hand go up. It was a kid wearing a god awful orange jumpsuit and looked like a spitting image of his last student. The fourth hokage. "yes, and your name is?"

"My name is Naruto Uzumaki!" exclaimed the blonde. Jaraiya smiled to himself, 'yup it's him, he has Kushina's last name, looks just like the fourth, and he has the same name as the main character from my book, just like Minato asked to name his son.'

The blonde started, "the answer is the will to never give up, the answer is being able to know that you are completely outmatched, and you still go on, the answer is knowing that at any minute you might die, the answer is still going on with that knowledge, the answer is….guts!" Said Naruto. The class was sitting on the edge of their seats at his little speach until the last word, then they started laughing out loud, well, except for Hinata and….Sasuke.

Jaraiya smirked, "CORRECT!" he yelled. The class fell silent. Sakura got angry, she stood up, slamming her hand to the table, "how am I supposed to believe that baka got it, and my Sasuke-kun didn't?" Naruto stood and turned to Sakura, "listen Sakura, just so you know, my being an idiot was just a façade to hide my pain, but you know, I don't have a crush on you anymore, so I don't care what you think anymore. So go on, love your little 'Sasuke-kun' see if I care, it's not like he's ever going to give you any attention anyways!"

The pinkette was shocked, "What was that!" Naruto replied again, "you heard me, instead of fawning over him, why don't you train and become stronger, and gain some of his respect. 'cause sadly you don't even have any of mine. AND. QUIT calling me an Idiot" he said the last part with malice in his voice.

The pink haired girl gulped and sat down. 'that was Naruto, damn, that was so….true'.

Iruka started, "all right class, settle down, get back in your seats. Okay master Jaraiya…..(he turned and Jaraiya was no longer there) umm….master Jaraiya…..sigh…oh well, I guess he didn't care to stay and listen to the DRAMA!" However, somewhere else in the village, Jaraiya was creeping down a street and saying "time to get my research in".

Back in class, Iruka was starting to give the class a lecture on chakra and how to mold it. This time Iruka, looked up to see Naruto…..oh kami…..Naruto was taking notes. Everyone in the class was looking at Naruto like he was an alien.

All of a sudden Naruto felt stares on him, he looked around and saw surprise on a lot of people's faces. "What?" he asks, "Haven't you ever seen someone take notes before"?

The students just turned their attention back to Iruka and continued listening to the lecture.

After the lecture was over, Iruka said, "Okay class, we have a pop-quiz on the lecture, and as a reward for anyone else who took notes, the test will be open notes." Most of the class groaned. The notable ones that did take notes were: Naruto, Hinata, Sasuke, Sakura, Shino, and Ino. All the other students hadn't and were all irritated. The class took the quiz, which Naruto blazed through, not even needing to look at his notes.

After the quiz the class had their recess. Once outside, Hinata and Naruto sat under a tree and ate lunch together. This time Naruto had, much to his dismay, forgotten to bring a lunch with him, so he had to eat an apple that Hinata had. He actually enjoyed the red fruit, and thought he would have to go by the store and get some more of it on his way home. Naruto was about to take another bite of the apple when a kunai went through the apple, pinning it to a tree.

Naruto looked up angry, "What the hell!". Naruto looked to the side and saw Sasuke grinning.

Sasuke started, "Hey Naruto, I think I'll take you up on your training offer after class. How about it?"

The blonde started, "Well, our classes end at three, I guess I'll meet you at training ground 12 at 6 o'clock."

Sasuke replied, "no that is quite alright, you can come to my house, I'm sure you know where the Uchiha house is".

The blonde started, "yeah I know where it is"

Sasuke replied, "good" he turned to leave before a kunai whizzed by his ear, taking off a single piece of hair. Sasuke turned to see Naruto. "What was that for dobe?"

"First of all, that was for rudely destroying my apple, second of all.." he threw another, "don't call me dobe anymore, or I will actually aim for your head next time." Naruto smirked and Sasuke chuckled, then nodded, pulled an apple from his pocket and threw it to Naruto, then left.

"N-naruto?" asked Hianta.

"Yes Hinata-chan?" replied the blonde.

"Why don't you just go with him right after classes?"

"well, I was hoping to get some Ramen with you and then train with you some…so what do you say?"

Hinata blushed, "oh….I would like that very much, N-naruto-k-kun"

They finished their meal, and went to the logs for throwing practice. Naruto and Hinata were using them, and Naruto was correcting her on her stance, and other things until time was called for them to return to class. The quiz scores were predictable, all that took notes made 100s while the rest varied. The rest of the day was rather uneventful. At three the bell rang and Naruto and Hinata shot out of the class to their favorite Ramen shop.

When they entered, Ayame said, "hey Naruto-kun, Hinata-chan, how are you two doing today?"

Naruto and Hinata both replied at the same time, "we're okay". They blushed at the fact they said it at the same time. Ayame, seeing this, giggled. She then said, "Well what will you two be having?"

Naruto spoke first, "Three bowls of miso pork ramen please" followed shortly by Hinata's "t-t-two bowls of the s-same." Her stuttering was starting to disappear completely. Naruto had noticed this.

He started, "hey Hianta-chan, your stuttering less and less nowadays".

"Yeah, I know N-Naruto-kun" she replied, blushing. She thought, 'it has just become second nature now, being able to spend time with you without fainting and blushing so much'. The two talked over the next thirty minutes, then Naruto paid for the Ramen and they left. Then they walked to the same training ground from the day before.

Naruto spoke first, "You wanna do a few warm up exercises" .

She replied, "of course."

They began by doing some stretches, jogging in place, and other little warm-ups. Then they had a tai-jutsu spar, and then they worked on Hinata's aim and form with shuriken and kunai. It came to be 5:30, and they stopped when Naruto said, "It's about time we stop so I can head over to Sasuke's place, could I walk you home?"

She replied, "I don't know, I don't want you to go out of your way".

He said, "Don't' worry its worth it….and….it is on the way too"

She said, "Okay N-naruto-k-kun".

They walked to the Hyuuga household and bid each other farewell. Naruto turned and walked to the Uchiha household. He walked in and walked to the door, he knocked on it. A moment later Sasuke opened the door with a rather un-Sasuke-like smile on his face, "hey dob….I mean Naruto…..ummm. You ready to train"

The blonde replied, "Yeah sure….. So, what do you want to do first" he said as they walked around the building to the Uchiha training ground.

Sasuke replied, "Well, I was thinking about maybe working on each others tai and then on our chakra control."

Naruto said, "sounds good to me".

They proceeded to have a taijutsu only sparring match, and then started training there chakra control by holding a leaf to there forehead with just their Chakra. Then they moved on to holding a leaf on each of their fingers with chakra. It came to be 9:00 and Naruto decided to leave. So he spoke up, "Hey Sasuke, I"ll be leaving now, see you at school tomorrow."

Sasuke replied, "Yeah, see you later Naruto."

Naruto walked out of the Uchiha household and was walking towards his apartment. He suddenly saw an ANBU member appear in front of him, "Uzumaki Naruto…Hokage-sama requires your audience."

Naruto replied, "thanks ANBU-san". and started walking to the Hokage tower. He went up the steps and to the hokage office. He knocked, "ENTer" Naruto walked in to be greeted by a smiling old man.

Naruto said, "What do you want old man".

The hokage said, "Now Naruto, is that any way to treat your Hokag.e….anyways….this is really important so pay attention….." the hokage began explaining. (this is a small surprise for later, deal with it).

Naruto walked into his appartment, made a shadow clone with some of Kyuubi's chakra in it's seal, and went to sleep. The clone Naruto then went into his mindscape and said, "hey furball wake up and get out here".

The kyuubi appeared in his human form and walked right through the gate and looked at Naruto, "Hey brat, ready to start training in the form."

Naruto replied, "Wait, don't I need to train some more with the weights."

The kyuubi replied, "no, you gained a LOT of strength from last night alone, with the combined effect of my chakra healing and your muscle degradation your strength is almost Jounin level, you just haven't used in the real world cause you haven't needed it. Anyways, we're going to be working on getting you to master the brute fist….this will probably take up the remainder of the year."

Naruto got angry and yelled, "that's way too long, what the hell kyuubi?".

Kyuubi said, "listen, it took my 100 years to make this, and 200 to MASTER it completely. And teaching it to you will take at least, if not only, six months, that should put it around the time you graduate. I've already given you a lot of jutsus, like the shadow clone, and few others, and taught you how to do ALL the basic jutsus needed for you to pass; like the regular clone, the henge, and others, AND I've even helped you a little in the genjutsu part of your arsenal. Which, by the way, is my LEAST favorite, so you don't need to worry about passing with flying colors. But there is one thing I need to be clear about."

"what is that kyuubi" asked Naruto.

"Well, after you gain this power, you are NOT, and I repeat NOT, to go on a rampage for revenge in this village, YOU GOT THAT?" said the demon fox.

"H-hai, I understand. I never intended to in the first place, even though they hate me, I'll still use this power to defend them, I'll even lay my life on the line for them." said the blond.

"Good" said the kyuubi, "now let's begin".

Kyuubi and Naruto began to train on how to do the taijutsu. The kyuubi said, "okay, I'm going to start off by training you how to do this WITH the stance, since it is much simpler to do it with it, and we will start with the basics."

Naruto replied, "well of course we should start with the basics, any baka knows that."

Just shut up brat and do as I say.

And so the night wore on and Naruto felt like he wasn't making any progress. He then turned to kyuubi, "it's been fun training, but I think I'm about to wake up and need to dispel."

To which kyuubi replied, "okay brat, see you later," that was followed by a loud, "see you" and a 'poof'.

Kyuubi said to himself, "good, that kid shall be of good use to me in getting my revenge on Madaara".


	5. Making the grade

**Thanks for the reviews everyone, keep em coming.**

**Now on with the story. Warning, time skip is obviously approaching.**

**In my fanfic, Kyuubi can NOT read Naruto's mind, just so there are no questions later. Oh and I just finished the rough draft for my research paper, so to celebrate I'm starting on ch. 5. Oh and….**

**Oh and just to clarify: speaking is "blaH BALH BLAH" Thinking is ' blahc blah blah'.**

**Warning: long flash back in this chapter. This will probably be a longer than usual chapter.**

**I DO NOT OWN NARUTO, KISHI DOES, IF I DID, WHAT I WRITE WOULDN'T BE CALLED FANFICTION ****and I would be rakin' in some dough. **

Chapter 5: Making the grade.

Naruto woke up, he walked over to his clone and dispelled it, and let the previous night's training with Kyuubi soak in. He thought to himself, 'wow, I've come a long way since the little kid a year ago, now look at me. I'm 12, and I'm ready to go to class and take my final to become a genin, I've all but mastered the brute fist, so far as kyuubi put it, and Sasuke and I have been tied for rookie of the year for six months now. Too bad though, him and I were getting along quite well, until it was announced that we were tied, and then he reverted back to having a stick shoved up his royal Uchiha ass. Oh well… I've grown really close to Hinata-chan, I hope she is on my team. I have to be discreet with how I go about presenting myself now, since I have these new strengths, kyuubi says I am just an ordinary genin graduate, but I think ordinary in Kyuubi's standard would be almost, if not fully, genius in human standards. There IS a reason why I'm tied with Sasuke for rookie of the year. I remember what Kyuubi said like it was yesterday'.

-Flashback-

Kyuubi and Naruto are in his mindscape and just finished training for Brute fist, Naruto is winded, but Kyuubi is not.

Naruto says, "Hey kyuubi, I can't wait to go and show everyone what I can do".

Kyuubi said, "Be careful kid, don't show too much power or they'll fear you. and when people fear you, they try to dispose of you….besides, you have to stay alive long enough for me to make my great escape."

Naruto replied, smirking, "Kyuubi, you know that is never going to happen, so just give up already".

"Naruto,…..seriously…use this power as an absolute LAST resort. And I mean the very last resort. Of course, if you're going up against a high leveled opponent, like a jounin, or s-ranked missing nin or whatever, yeah it's in your best interest to go ahead and pull it out, but anything else, just keep your hidden powers…..well….. hidden…understood"

Naruto replied, "Crystal clear furball".

-Flashback end-

Naruto thought, 'I know one day kyuubi and I are gonna end up stopping our little training habbit, he's gonna try to take over, I can't let that happen'.

Just then there was a knock on the door, Naruto walked over to the window to look out, it was an ANBU, to which Naruto thought, 'what are Anbu doing here?'

He opened the door.

"Naruto Uzumaki…." said the Anbu

"Yes Anbu-san"..said Naruto

The anbu replied, "the hokage requires your presence".

"OH….Thank you Anbu-san". said the blonde.

Naruto got ready for class, and left an hour early to go by and see the hokage.

Naruto walked up to the doors and knocked, "Enter!" was heard.

Naruto opened the door and walked in.

In the room was three people. The third Hokage, Koharu and Homaru (I think that is the two old advisor's names..oh well).

"Ahhhhhhhhh..Naruto-kun" said the third, "how are you today".

"Pretty good", said Naruto.

"PLease..please…take a seat" said Homaru.

Naruto took a seat in front of the three. The hokage cleared his throat, "Naruto, this may seem hard for you, but we need you to fail the graduation test."

Naruto was shocked, "What!, But why?"

The hokage replied, "oh don't worry, you'll see…." and the hokage explained.

Forty five minutes later Naruto walked into the academy room his class was in. Today's test was a simple, regular clone. He could do Shadow clones, but nooooooo, he had to fail it on purpose. When it came to be Naruto's turn, he put too too too much chakra into the clone, making it unstable, and thus useless. Iruka said, "fail".

To which Mizuki said, "Come on Iruka, you could tell he has loads of Chakra, and that he is doing his best".

Iruka replied, "Look Mizuki, if I pass Naruto and he is not yet ready, then he could be killed on the field. I would not be able to live with the guilt of knowing it was my fault."

Mizuki just sat there, Naruto just walked back to his seat quietly, putting on a saddened and defeated look, a fake look of course. Later that day, right after they were all dismissed from classes, Hinata walked over to Naruto, she looked a little bit of a mix of sad and mad. "Naruto, I'm sorry you didn't pass….but…explain to me how you couldn't do that…(she got closer and whispered) it's almost like you didn't want to pass….what's up…tell me" she said.

Naruto replied, "No Hinata-chan, it's nothing."

Just then Hinata's keeper walked up, he spat disdainful words at Naruto, "stay away from Hianta-sama". To this Hinata turned an icy glare towards her keeper, then the man just grabbed her hand and pulled her away. Naruto looked up at Hianta and saw her sad expression as she was being pulled away, he knew it wasn't of her doing, but he still couldn't help but feel sad that she was being pulled away. Now he was alone….AGAIN.

Later that day, Naruto was sitting on his trusty swing when a man appeared next to him.

"Hey squirt," he said, "do you wanna become a genin"? said Mizuki

Naruto replied, jumping up and down, "oh you betcha I wanna be a genin, believe it".

"Good, cuz I know a way you can be one…." Mizuki went on to explain his plan, eliciting a smirk from Naruto, and Naruto thought 'gotcha'.

Later that night, Naruto had stolen the Forbidden Scroll and was at the hiding spot, he opened the scroll to the first technique, "kage bunshin?" (shadow clone) "NOpe, already know it..next…shuriken shadow clone…slef-explanatory….exploding shadow clone…once again….self explanatory…ohhhh what's this (slowly) Flying Thundergod Technique…ohhhh this is some good stuff " he took out a pen and a piece of paper and copied, word for word, and every picture that was on the scroll. "I'll train for that later". Just then Mizuki came up. Naruto thought, 'okay, things are about to start, I can't use brute fist, he's not worth it, I can't use too much, or else I'll reveal too much, I guess I'll just run or something…'

**The scene with mizuki is same as anime/manga. Whatever, you get the drift.**

The next day, when Naruto walked in the class room, everyone turned to stare at him, and sasuke said, "Hey DOBE, what are you doing here, only those who PASSED are supposed to be here."

Sakura piped in, "Yeah loser, why are YOU here".

To which Naruto replied, "Oh you didn't know, I failed the test on purpose."

This got a lot of 'what the fuck are you smoking I want some' looks from everyone. "When I was on my way here yesterday morning, the hokage summoned me and gave me a mission to flush out a traitor they thought was in the education system, so they used me as bait, thinking he would use my failure as leverage to get me to do something…yeah, it turned out to be Mizuki." this got surprised looks from everyone.

"Wait, so you've already done a mission" asked the Uchiha.

"Yup" said Naruto, "and it was an A-rank one at that". This got gasps from everyone. Naruto looked around and saw that the seat next to Hinata was taken, 'damn it' he thought.

The Uchiha continued, "Wait, so you've already done an A-ranked mission, you're such a lucky dobe."

Naruto replied, "yeah I am lucky, the only other choice they had was you, and they decided on me because it would be more believable for me to have failed, since I WAS ONCE the dead last." This got nods of agreement. Naruto looked over at the guy who was flirting with Hinata. The guy then noticed Naruto and turned to see that Naruto was giving him a 'if looks could kill, you would have been shredded to pieces' look. The guy gulped and went to another seat. Naruto walked over and sat next to Hinata. "Well hello there Hinata-chan, how is your morning?"

"I'm good Naruto-k-kun….so you did fail on purpose?" she asked.

"Yup. You're a pretty observant person you know that, you almost made my mission a failure….but, it is good that you noticed, ninja's need to be very observant." he said.

"I guess so" said Hinata.

Over the past year, Naruto and Hinata had become really close friends, one could say best friends. They were both secretly hoping to be on one anothers team. Naruto had worked wanders on Hinata's confidence, she hardly stuttered any more, and hadn't fainted in months. He helped her so much, even her father noticed.

-FLASHBACK-

It was a Saturday at the Hyuuga compound.

"Hinata, come here" demanded Hiashi.

"Yes father" said Hinata as she walked over to him.

"I have noticed that you walk with more confidence in your posture and steps, and you look me in the eye more, what has caused this change in your behavior?" he asked.

"Well father, I have a new friend, and we train every day after our classes let out" she began, "he is a real help, and I feel I have gotten much stronger". At the word "he" Hiashi's right eyebrow rose.

"Well if that's the case….HANABI!" Hanabi walked in from a side door.

"Yes father" she said.

"You two will have a fight right now, do you understand." said Hiashi.

Both girls said, "H-hai" in unison.

Hinata and Hanabi turned to one another, they bowed and began. They both got into the Gentle Fist stance, and began a fierce battle of their family's taijutsu. Hinata swung to connect with Hanabi but Hanabi blocked it by sending her hand wide, then Hanabi tried to connect a strike to Hinata's side, to which Hinata just blocked by doing a backflip, while doing the backflip, Hinata let her foot come out wide slamming against Hanabi's chin. Hanabi was surprised, and stood back up, she said, "You've improved, Sister.".

Hinata said, "maybe a little." and they charged at one another, this time the battle didn't last long, as Hanabi and Hinata were nearing each other, Hanabi threw a strike towards Hinata, Hinata dodged by sweeping Hanabi's legs out from under her, then Hinata sent a Gentle Fist strike directly beneath Hanabi's heart, knocking her unconscious for the next few hours. Hinata stood and looked at her father, "Is that enough, father?"

Hiashi looked a little surprised, "Good job Hinata, could you tell me who this friend of yours is…and if I can meet him".

Hinata said, "He is Naruto Uzumaki". Hiashi inwardly smiled, and thought, 'yes, my daughter is spending time with the Fourth Hokage's son, how did I get so lucky'. You see, Hiashi knew about Naruto's lineage, and was one of the few people in the village who didn't believe Naruto WAS the Kyuubi. Hinata continued, "well, I don't know when you can meet him".

"Could you ask him to come over tonight for dinner….what is his favorite meal?" he asked.

"I'll ask him…" said Hinata, then thought, 'oh dear, I don't want to eat any of the Hyuuga cooks' awful Ramen' she said, "ummm….I'm not sure what his favorite meal is."

To which Hiashi said, "I shall have the cooks prepare steak tonight…and Hinata, I am EXPECTING him to be here".

"Yes father" said Hinata. Who then left.

Hiashi smiled to himself, and thought 'well isn't this nice, I think I'll scare him some, lord knows Minato would get a laugh out of it…..man I miss you sometimes Minato….Kushina…..' (hint: Him and his wife were good friends with the fourth hokage and Kushina, in this fanfic anyways, and yes, I hate fanfics with an evil Hiashi).

Hinata walked out of her house, down the street towards Naruto's apartment and up to his door. She knocked on it. Nothing. She knocked on it again. Nothing. After a while she grew a little impatient and activated her Byakugan to look through his door and into his apartment. She saw that he was asleep on his bed. She thought, 'that's weird, it's Saturday, and it is only 6 o'clock, why is he already asleep?'

She walked around a corner and over to his window, which was surprisingly open. She hopped inside and walked over to where his room is. She knocks on his bedroom door. Once again nothing, this time she activates her byakugan to look in again and sees a 'shadow clone?' she thought, 'what the hell is he doing sleeping, with a shadow clone sitting in the floor meditating…okay that's it damn it' She bangs on the door really hard this time.

-meanwhile-

Naruto was training in his mindscape with Kyuubi, he had on some weights, HEAVY weights. Weights that would even hold down rock lee. He had on 200 lbs. on each arm and leg and 200 lbs. on his abdomen. He was training with Kyuubi to polish up his brute fist, he was now mastering it to where he doesn't need to get in the stance, and was almost done. All of a sudden Kyuubi stopped. "what the hell is the matter Kyuubi".

"You have company" said the fox.

"Oh shit, someone may have come to attempt to kill me again" said Naruto.

"No….(kyuubi looks like he is concentrating) it is that Hyuuga girl" said Kyuubi.

"Oh Hianta-chan" said Naruto.

"Chan?" said Kyuubi.

"Oh shut it furball, so what am I learning tomorrow" asked Naruto.

"Well about that, I've really already trained you as much as I am going to, for now. From now on we will be doing tactical lessons." said Kyuubi.

"What!" said Naruto.

"don't worry about it brat, you're only twelve and you're probably mid to upper jounin level, if you were a little bit older you would be anbu level right now, so stop complaining…also…don't use your true strength unless it is absolutely necessary." said the Fox Demon.

"Yeah I know I know, I gotta go" said the blonde.

The shadow clone quit meditating and walked over to himself sleeping on the bed. He slapped his real self in the top of the head and yelled "WAKE UP IDIOT" the real Naruto shot up and said, "hey, I am really you, so you just called yourself an idiot….idiot."

To this the clone replied, "whatever" and dispelled. Naruto got the memories, ached a little from all the training until Kyuubi's chakra started healing him, then he walked over and opened the door to Hinata. "Ummm Hinata-chan, what are you doing IN my apartment while I'm asleep?"

"I needed to get in touch with you, and when you didn't come to the door I used my eyes to see that you were asleep, I came in through your window, and before you ask why, it is because my father wants you to have dinner with us tonight. We are having steak….it is now 6:15, so take a shower or something and come to the house by 7 okay Naruto-k-kun" said Hinata.

"Oh great, I can't wait to meet your family Hinata-chan….so I guess I'll see you later" he said. She nodded and left the building thinking 'I'll ask him later why he was using shadow clones while sleeping'.

Later that night Naruto walked to the Hyuuga household and sighed, he had ditched his usual orange attire for a more suitable one consiting of black pants, and a long sleeved blue shirt with the same symbol on the back of his jumpsuit on his shoulders, and red. (if you've seen Naruto Shippuden, the episode that Jiraiya ends his fight with pain, and he has a flash back to Minato and Kushina, that is the same attire as Minato's). He walked up to the entrance and was led into the house by a branch member. He was led to a room where Hiashi and his two daughters were sitting.

Hiashi said, "Welcome Naruto Uzumaki, please, make yourself at home." At this Hinata let out a blush. Then Naruto thought, 'oh great this night is gonna be so fun'.

-END FLASHBACK-

Naruto thought to himself, 'yeah that night was fun'.

"Naruto….Naruto….Naruto-kun…hellllo" said Hinata.

Naruto turned to her, "oh sorry Hinata-chan, I zoned out a little, what were you saying."

"I was saying that I hope you and I get put on the same team" she said.

"Oh…me too…you have no idea" he said.

Just then Iruka walked in, "all right class, I have your team assignments." He went through teams 1-6... "okay, team 7, your Jounin instructor will be Hatake Kakashi, and the members are: Sakura Haruno, Naruto Uzumaki, and Sasuke Uchiha".

Both Naruto and Hinata were disappointed, seeing as now they will not be seeing anywhere near as much of each other now. Naruto said, "well, that sucks,"

Hinata replied, "yeah it does".

"Okay, now will everyone please go and sit next to your team" said Iruka. At this Naruto groaned.

"I guess I'll see you later Hinata-chan", said Naruto.

"Yeah Naruto-kun" said Hinata.

Naruto walked over to Sasuke and Sakura, he said, "Hey guys, what's up?"

Sakura didn't notice as she was staring at Sasuke, and Sasuke was sitting with his fingers interlaced, elbows on the table, and hi face slightly touching his hands, and he was staring intently at the wall.

Naruto said, "You know….I never understood what you find soooooo interesting about that wall…..it's as if it's telling you that you DON'T have a duck's ass on the back of your head". This got laughs from the whole room, except all the girls that usually fawned over Sasuke.

Sasuke turned to Naruto, "you know, I never understood why you're so loud, is it because you want to be noticed by girls….or guys." this got snickering as well.

"You know Sasuke, if you would like, I know a really good surgeon who can safely remove that five foot stick that's so thoroughly shoved up your ass." this got bursts of laughter from the guys.

"okay okay, sit down and shut up, and wait for your Jounin sensei" said Iruka.

The team just sat down, after three hour and them being the last ones remaining, Naruto grew impatient and did the same old eraser in the door trick. The same thing happened as in cannon.

-on the rooftop-

Kakashi said, "so, I would like you to introduce yourselves"

Naruto replied, "isn't it rude to ask us to introduce ourselves without introducing yourself first?"

Kakashi smiled, as much as you could see anyways, and said, "oh yes…well….My name is Kakashi Hatake, my hobbies are none of your concern, my goals are also none of your concern, and I've never really thought about the future, okay, who's next"

Sakura started, "I'm Sakura Haruno, my hobbies are (looks at Sasuke) my likes are (looks at sasuke again) my dreams are (looks at sasuke again)".

At this point Kakashi thinks, 'great, a useless fan girl'.

Then sakura finished, "and my dislikes are Naruto".

"Okay next" said Kakashi.

Sasuke started, "What I have is not a goal, but an ambition. And that is to become strong and kill a certain man." Then crickets could be heard.

"all right….next" said Kakashi.

Naruto started, "I'm Naruto Uzumaki, I like: ramen, training, ramen, training, oh and did I mention ramen, I like my friends, I like to learn jutsu, I like a lot of stuff. I dislike people who think they are so much better only because they were born into a clan or something, and I dislike those who ignorantly and blindly follow. My goals are to become the hokage, and get everyone in the village to accept me. However, I know that that will be a long and arduous journey, but nothing good in life comes easy." he said.

Kakashi smiled, "it seems we have a decent team, now be at the training grounds at 6 a.m. sharp, and no breakfast….or else you'll throw up". At this he poofed into smoke.

The students were left gaping, and they all had the same thought 'six in the morning!'

Sakura said, "Sasuke-kun, wanna go on a date?"

Sasuke said, "nope…gonna go train".

Naruto said, "yeah me too, I think I'll go to training ground 15 if either of you want to come".

Sakura quickly replied, "you're such a loser, why would either of us want to join you".

Naruto calmly replied, "Sakura….it was just an offer, I wasn't beggin or asking, just offering, considering you're the weakest of the group, you should train with one of us".

Sakura said, "hn" and turned and walked off. Sasuke also walked off. Naruto made his way to training ground 15, the one with the REALLY tall trees. When Naruto arrived he sighed, and thought, 'this is gonna be fun'. He then thought, 'thank goodness kyuubi taught me how to use these weight seals so I can train with weights when I want to by pumping chakra into the weights'. Naruto had a seal on each of his wrists and ankels. He pumped enough chakra into them to make it around 350 lbs for each seal. He instantly could barely walk. He then thought, 'okay, time to walk up that tree'. He mustered all of his strength and began a half-jog to a tree in the field, he reached it, and got up 4 steps before falling back down. He thought, 'this is gonna be fun'.

FOUR HOURS LATER

Naruto trudged into his room. He had successfully climbed up the tree twice with an extra 1750 pounds on. He was amazed at his own strength, but still felt he was far too weak. Naruto made a shadow clone and climbed in bed, falling asleep before his head even hit the pillow.

In Naruto's mind, Kyuubi, who is in his human henge form, said, "kid you look like shit that got run over by a stampede of cattle".

"Oh shut it kyuubi and heal me." he said.

"okay, but we are only doing tactics tonight" he said.

"Tactics?" said Naruto.

"Yup" said Kyuubi, "now here's how we're gonna do it, you're going to sit down in front of me, you're going to meditate, and I'm going to place you under a genjutsu"

"but why?" asked Naruto.

"what is the best teacher" asked Kyuubi.

"you" said Naruto.

"flattered as I am…no…the best teacher is experience…I'm going to use this genjutsu to run you through many various battle/tactical simulations; they will feel real, and your reactions should be taken seriously." said Kyuubi.

"I get it, what I experience in the genjutsu will be like real live battle experience.." said Naruto.

"basically, although you can never really fully simulate a REAL opponent attacking you" said Kyuubi, "opponents with savage blood lust that is."

"OKay" said Naruto, then he sat down and Kyuubi, in his human form, sat down in front of him. All of a sudden Naruto awoke in a field. He was motioned over by another ninja, the ninja was Kakashi.

Kakashi said, "naruto, your mission is to sneak into that fortress beyond that forest and retrieve the feudal lord's daughter, you are to remain hidden, you are to not allow the feudal lord's daughter to be harmed any more than she may already be, and you are to stay as clean as you can….Sasuke, Sakura and I will be the diversionary team…okay team, move out"

Naruto started off in a sprint to through the forest while Kakashi and company went another route to circle to the front of the fort. Naruto was at the fortress in a matter of minutes, and waited for the diversion to begin. He heard a loud boom, and noticed all the ninja run to the front of the fortress. Naruto checked to see if there were any paper bombs or other traps or anything, he leaped over the wall and stayed close to the inside of the wall, hiding in the shadows. He scanned the grounds for any signs of boob traps, he saw none. He quickly made his way, while staying in the shadows of course, to the main building. When he entered he noticed a stairway leading up. He reached the end of the hallway that lead to said stairway, problem was that there was an open doorway in between himself and the stairway. Naruto reached into his pack and pulled out a tiny mirror. He used it to peek around the corner and saw the room empty, he thought to himself, 'humph….good diversion'. He silently made his way up the stairs, stopping and checking each floor as he went up. When he was almost at the top floor, he barely made it back into the shadows of the corner before a man came walking out. The man started down the stairs, once the man was gone, Naruto used the same mirror to look into the room beside him. In it he saw that there was a young girl on the ground chained to the wall. She was being guarded by two ninja, both probably jounin level. Naruto thought, 'this is not the situation to go bargin in like the idiot I know I am, this calls for more discreet manners…..perfrect.' Naruto henged into the man that had just walked away. He walked into the room, "hey guys" he said, walking all the way up to the two.

"Hey Toro, what was taking so long with that ruckus outside," said one of the men.

"Oh nothing, just some little leaf genin trying to rescue their little princess I guess" Naruto said.

Both of the men smirked, they threw kunais at Naruto, who knocked them away with his own, "what is the meaning of this".

"The man you saw leave earlier was a clone henged to look like Toro, Toro has been dead for a year". Said one of the two.

'damn they're smart' thought Naruto.

Naruto smirked, he pulled out two smoke bombs and dropped them, once he was covered, he grabbed the feudal lord's daughter and set her behind him. He made five shadow clones to stand around her in a circle. He then turned to the two ninja. "Well, time to have some fun" he said.

The two charged at Naruto, lunging with their kunai. Naruto, with a kunai in each hand, blocked each of theirs with one of his, then he spun beneath their attack and sliced open their chests. As they pulled back in natural retaliation, he came back up and dug his kunai into the sides of the men's necks and yanked the kunais out of the front. The two men fell, dead, and halfway decapitated. Naruto turned around and grabbed the girl, and ran out of the building, the same way he came in. Mission cleared.

All night Naruto had many missions, some similar to that one, some completely different.

Naruto awoke the next morning and let his clone dispel. He felt all the memories come back to him, 'cool' he thought. 'now a lot more stuff Iruka-sensei talked about makes sense'. Naruto took a shower, dressed, and left for the Training grounds. He was due to meet his Team and his sensei at 6:00, and it was now 5:30. He had one thought, 'today is gonna be a good day'.


	6. The bell test: becoming a team

**Thanks for the reviews. Keep them coming please, the more reviews, the more enthusiastic I am about writing, so naturally I write it faster. **

**Adngo714: That is why Kyuubi said he used a jutsu to return the physical experience of the clones training to the original (just to be clear people, Kyuubi uses a jutsu to return Naruto's clone's physical training to the original: the jutsu would be great with practical use, think if someone knowingly caught a shadow clone spying in their village, they could use the…I'll call it "physical tranfer jutsu" to kill the original).**

**Towards the sun: you predict too well.**

**Note: I do not, and never will, own Naruto**

**On with the story.**

Chapter 6: the bell test and so forth, finding out what being a team means.

Naruto walked to the training grounds. He was greated there by Sakura and Sasuke.

"yawn…Good Morning" said Naruto.

"Good? I'd call it anything but good" said Sakura.

"Hn" said Sasuke.

"I agree" loud rumble, "man I'm so hungry" said Naruto.

"Now it's just a matter of time before sensei gets here" said Sakura.

"Say….while he's on his way, do you guys wanna get to know each other a little better, or spar or something, maybe we ca-" Naruto was cut off.

"Listen baka, you're only getting in the way. So shut up and stay away from Sasuke-kun and me" said Sakura.

"Listen Sakura, you're really testing my patience. Do you understand? You are weaker than both Sasuke AND me, so don't go talking to me like I'm inferior….I did graduate from the Academy TIED with SASUKE for ROOKIE OF THE YEAR…so quit trying to blow smoke up everyone's ass and train with me or Sasuke so we can make you at least a little stronger". Said Naruto.

Sakura just stood there shocked, she remembered how Sasuke had scolded her.

-flashback-

"I can't stand that Naruto, he's always getting in the way, and acting out, he doesn't have any parents to scold him for doing anything wrong. Therefore, he can just do whatever he wants." said Sakura, "man I wish I could do whatever I wanted…what about you Sasuke".

Sasuke said, "loneliness…. It is the worst feeling in the world….to grow up all alone, is worse than dying"

"What are you talking about Sasuke-kun" asked Sakura.

"I'm saying" he turns to her, "YOU'RE ANNOYING".

-FLASHBACK END-

Sakura looks at Naruto and thinks, 'how much have you changed Naruto?'. She then says, "well Naruto, how about we do some chakra control training, we can all use help in that area?"

Naruto smiled, "that's better…so how about it Sasuke?"

"Sure….whatever" he said.

Naruto ran to a tree and pulled out three leaves. He ran back to his teammates, and handed one to each, and kept one himself.

"what are these for" aksed Sakura.

"Use your chakra to stick it to your forehead….it helps with Chakra control" he said.

At the word "forehead" Sakura got a vein, but it disappeared when she heard him explain.

Naruto felt Kyuubi calling on him to talk. (a/n: this is like a tingling feeling in the back of his head).

Naruto made a shadow clone that stayed and did the leaf training and he got into a meditative position. Unlike the clone, however, he would be talking to kyuubi, not sticking a leaf to his forehead.

Naruto came to in his mindscape. He saw Kyuubi, "what is it fur ball?"

"I wanted to remind you not to use your powers….and that just because I have trained you doesn't mean anything between us has changed…..I will still escape your body when the time is right" said Kyuubi.

"KYUUBI, for the millionth time, I know to use the brute fist as an absolute last, and I also know that you will NOT be escaping me, it is my duty to keep you in check" naruto said.

To this the kyuubi raged out of the cage in his human form and attacked naruto with a brute fist strike, which Naruto easily deflected and then sent Kyuubi flying back into the cage with his own strike. "How dare you, you little punk" said Kyuubi.

"Listen Kyuubi, I know you don't like staying in me, but get used to it…..I know, I'll make it a little more _comfortable _for you" said Naruto.

"What do you mean" asked Kyuubi.

Naruto closed his eyes and focused, all of a sudden the 'mindscape' and Kyuubi's cage changed to an infinitely large forests, with everything forests usually have: deer, squirrels, small plants, flowers, and the works.

"wow" said Kyuubi, "just wow"

"you can thank me later" said Naruto.

"screw you kid," said Kyuubi, then chuckling said, "oh who am I kidding, thanks kid"

"don't mention it, I am going to try to be a very accommodating host" said Naruto.

"I know you're just trying to butter me up to avoid the inevitable…but it won't work squirt, I wont work….I am the Nine Tails, I will be free."

"You sound like someone in prison, oh wait, you are a prisoner. Just get used to it, and be thankful that I gave you more room." said Naruto.

"Whatever…..You need to get back to your world now" said Kyuubi

"sure" said Naruto.

Naurto opened his eyes to see that Sasuke and Sakura were on their knees in front of him, studying him with concerned looks. "What" Naruto asked, "how long have I been out"?

"Oh about three and a half hours" said Sakura

"what" said Naruto.

"Yeah, we got bored with the leaf thing, and we went and did some tai sparring with all of us, we used your clone", said Sakura.

"well okay" said Naruto, holding up a hand sign and dispelling his clone gaining some memories. "good strategy Sakura, you need to improve your strength and your speed, Sasuke you need to just keep doing what you train hard to do" he said.

They both gave naruto curious looks, to which naruot said, "I gain their memories when I dispel them" he said.

"oh" both sakura and sasuke said.

"So listen guys…." naruto started but was cut off by a poof. A cloud of smoke appeared; when it cleared there stood Kakashi, his handy-dandy orange book in hand.

"yo" he said.

"you're late" shouted both Sakura and Naruto.

"no I'm not, I told YOU three to be here at 6, I never said _I _would arrive at six." said Kakashi.

"Oh that's dirty" said Naruto.

"Oh well, what cha gonna do?" asked Kakahsi. "Anyways, I am going to put you guys through a test to become genin".

"what?" said Naruto, "we already passed the test"

"that was just a pre-test if you will, a test to see if you are worthy to have the chance to become a genin…this test will be the REAL test to become a genin…now let me explain, you have until noon to get one of these two bells from me (holds up bells). Here is the catch though, there are only two bells because-"

"the one who doesn't get one is sent back to the academy" said Sasuke.

"very sharp, as expected of the 'rookie of the year' " said Kakashi.

"humph" said Naruto, crossing his arms in front of his chest.

"I don't get it" said Sakura.

"why put us on..mmmm mm mm" Naruto put his hand over Sakura's mouth.

She pulled away, "what are you doing baka,"

"don't finish that statement, trust me, I have an idea" said Naruto.

Sakura looked horrified, "you….an idea…the world as we know it must be ending"

Naruto looked disappointed, "oh screw it, I guess I'm still considered an idiot, even after tying with Sasuke for 'rookie of the year'".

"also, if you do not get a bell, you will be tied to the post, and we will eat lunch in front of you" said Kakahi.

Everyone got pissed and all thought, 'that's why he told us not to eat any breakfast'.

"Listen" said Kakashi, "you need to come at me with the intent to kill, or else you wont have a chance in hell of getting a bell form me".

"Good advice" said Naruto as he charged. Naruto tried to kick Kakashi in the head, but Kakahi blocked it with his forearm. Naruto spun in mid air, slashing at Kakashi with a kunai, Kakashi knocked Naruto to the ground.

"Relax…I haven't even said start yet" said Kakashi.

"Oh" said Naruto

"you idiot" said Sakura.

"begin" said Kakashi, and he puffed in a cloud of smoke.

Sakura and Sasuke were about to jump off when Naruto grabbed their wrists and dragged them into the forests. When he stopped, his teammates both said, "Naruto, what the hell?"

"Listen guys, this IS a test…a ninja test" said Naruto.

"Thank you captain obvious" said Sakura.

"Yeah Naruto, you're such a loser" said Sasuke

"No no no…what I mean is his instructions were deceiving, that is what makes it a TRUE test." Naruto said.

"what do you mean?" asked Sakura.

"What is our objective?" asked naruto…"our true objective"

"get the bells" said Sasuke.

"yes and no….our true goal is teamwork…and he uses the bells in two ways. 1) he uses them to pit us against each other, to see if we can see past ourselves and work for the team. 2) as a demonstration of our teamwork, or lack thereof." said Naruto.

"that…makes sense" said Sakura.

"hn" said Sasuke.

"Listen Sasuke, if you screw this up and get me sent back to the academy, I'm gonna roast your duck-butt ass" said Naruto. Sakura snickered, and Sasuke smiled then pulled Naruto into a noogie.

"Oh you don't have to worry about that" said Sasuke.

"Okay okay" said Naruto, pushing Sasuke off and punching him playfully on the shoulder.

"Hey Sakura, since you're not too physically capable, I thought we could have you come up with a plan." said Naruto.

Sakura got a little pissed, a vein popped up on her forehead, "not physically capable? Oh welll….okay" she sat down and started to think.

"got it…okay….here's how we….." she started.

Later, Kakashi was standing in a clearing near a creek when Sasuke and Naruto came out of the forrest, rushing him. 'oh' he thought, 'they actually figured it out it seems' He put away his book, 'I might want to be more careful'. As Naruto and Sasuke approached, Kakashi simply took out a kunai and slashed them both, and they poofed out of existence, 'they were both shadow clones' thought Kakashi. Next, a group of 10 Naruto's came out of the forest. The charged, this time, they put up more of a fight, Kakashi said, "oh I see, so you're the one that uses shadow clones" he dispelled them once again. Next a group of 20 Naruto's came out, this time as they ran forwards, they formed 4 groups of five, and each one of the groups did the same thing. They each ran around so that they had Kakashi surrounded with a group on each side, then they ran at Kakashi, the lead Naruto getting on his hands and knees, so that the next could use him as a base to jump high into the air. The other three members of the clone groups charged from the ground, while four descended from above. Kakashi was shocked at this, and was forced to use a substitution to get away. He stood on a tree branch and watched as the Naruto's decimated a log. Then heard an all to familiar sound and was barely able to dodge the kunai that were thrown at him from behind. He spun to see Sasuke and Sakura. Each had smiles on their faces. "What are you smiling at" said Kakashi. He then looked to his waist and sow no bells, he looked down to the bells falling from where he was and saw a rock underneath his tree branch poof and become a Naruto shadow clone, catching the bells. Naruto ran over to his original, gave the bell to the real Naruto, and dispelled. Naruto, with bells in hand, ran over to Sasuke and Sakura, he gave them each a bell.

"Here, you guys take this, I can pass the exam again" said Naruto

Sasuke gave his back, "I'm a 'genius' I have a better chance"

Sakura gave hers to Sasuke, "I just hold the team back, yall would be better without me"

Kakahi sighed, the first team to pass, and they did it with a landslide. Kakashi said, "alright alright, stop rubbing it in, you all pass…but I want to know how Naruto had a shadow clone placed under that tree".

"easy" said Sakura, "the first two waves of Naruto shadow clones were distractions, Naruto henged a shadow clone to slowly creep to beneath the tree while staying in your blind spots….you see, we then sent in a more advanced attack, one we thought you would have to avoid by doing a substitution and landing on the branch above, or the ground below, then we would throw a mass amount of kunai, making you dodge them, not noticing that two of them were thrown at the bells, not you, after you dodged, letting them fall, and here we are now."

"excellent strategy" said Kakashi.

"how about we all go to Ichiraku ramen to celebrate" said Naruto.

"nah, I gotta go report this to the Hokage" said Kakashi.

"that reminds me, I gotta get my pay from the hokage for that mission" said Naruto, "hey, would you guys meet me at Ichiraku ramen in about an hour?"

"sure" said both his teammates.

They all then went their separate ways.

-10 minutes later-

Naruto was standing at the door to the hokage office, listening to the conversation going on inside.

-inside-

"Hokage-sama, how could you let Naruto do an A-RANK mission ALONE" asked Iruka

"I didn't" said the hokage.

"what?" said Iruka.

"Naturally, since everyone in the education system was a suspect, you were not informed of the details of the mission. Well, to put it short, I had an anbu team trail Naruto the entire time" said the Hokage.

Outside naruto thought, 'yeah I sensed them there the whole time'.

"oh, well that's a relief…so the anbu are the ones who beat Mizuki" said Iruka.

"nope, it was Naruto…the anbu were there for only if things got outta hand" said the Hokage.

Iruka got a sweat drop, thinking, 'and me getting a giant shuriken embedded in my spine is not outta hand….oh well'.

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK

"come in" said the hokage.

The door opened and in walked Naruto.

"greetings hokage-sama, I was just coming by to get my payment" said Naruto.

"Oh that's right, we didn't pay you yet because we had to finalize interrogations on Mizuki before we could call it a success." said the hokage, pulling out an envelope and handing it to Naruto, "there you go".

"thanks old man" said Naruto, "say Iruka-sensei, how you been?"

"oh fine, how bout you Naruto?" asked Iruka

"same old same old…..we should get some ramen some time or another" said Naruto.

"yeah we should, how about tomorrow" said Iruka.

"sounds great to me," said Naruto.

"good, and it's on me" said Iruka.

"even better" said Naruto. He then said his 'goodbyes' and left, making his way to the ramen shop he loved.

-later-

Naruto walked into the all-too-familiar ramen stand, looked at the man cooking his favorite meal, and said, "Hey old-man Teuchi, how's it going?"

"Pretty good", replied the older man, "what'll you have Naruto"

"I'll have five bowls of miso please, extra pork" said Naruto.

"coming right up" said Teuchi.

Naruto looked down at his two friends who were staring at him, and then he sat down. He said, "so guys, how did you like today's test?"

"I think it was bologna" said Sakura.

"agreed" said Sasuke.

Naruto thought, 'jeez, I'm not the sensei, yet I'm stuck explaining this simple crap to them. And they call me an idiot'.

"Yeah, I know what you mean guys, I coulda taken Kakashi-sensei on myself" proclaimed Naruto. Hitting himself on the chest.

"Yeah right Naruto, not even Sasuke-kun could have, what makes you think you could've" said Sakura.

Naruto placed his index finger on his chin, and looked up to the left as if sarcastically contemplating something, "Wait, so if I couldn't, and Sasuke couldn't, and you DEFINETELY couldn't, then how was us learning how to work as a team so bad".

"Oh shut it" said Sakura, hitting Naruto over the head. She then thought, 'naruto, I'm so jealous…since when did you get so ….. Smart…you're actually right for once….and now I feel useless'.

Sasuke said, "he's right Sakura, but Naruto, there are times when working alone would be better. For instance….." he trailed off.

"Oh you mean your little ambition or whatever, yeah I'm sure having a team of ANBU to back you up wouldn't hurt" said Naruto.

"SHUT UP!" started Sasuke, "WHAT WOULD YOU KNOW LOSER".

"Exactly, I don't know. That means I have an objective point of view and I could make a better decision because I wouldn't be influenced by the same emotions as you….but I typically let my emotions carry me, so I was just…you know…..oh never mind, just shut up and eat your ramen duck-butt" and Naruto punched him on the arm.

Sasuke said, "whatever moron" and then thought, 'well….you do have a point, but I will kill Itachi with MY hands….it is my duty as an Uchiha.'. Sasuke then proceeded to punch Naruto on the arm, "if you'd quit flirting with me then I would be able to eat"

Naruto said, "Sasuke you only wish I would flirt with you".

Sakura thought, 'well they seem to be bonding well, what about me….I feel left out'.

"Hey Sakura, why haven't you eaten anything, is there something wrong" asked Naruto.

"huh…oh…no, thanks for the concern….ummmm…oh yeah" she picks up her chop sticks and begins eating. She thinks, 'I just hope I can train and become useful to my team….that's it'. She said, "hey Sasuke, Naruto, could I train with one of you some time".

Sasuke said, "hn…I don't need any distractions while I train". At this Sakura slumped.

Naruto said, "anytime Sakura, just let me know when you're free and I'll try to come and train with you, assuming I'm free that is".

"thanks" said Sakura.

"I have an idea" said Naruto.

"what a shocker" said Sasuke,

"No really…in order to increase our team work and our understanding of each other's abilities, why don't we hold Team training/sparring sessions at least once a week", said Naruto.

"you know, I would normally say, 'fuck off you insignificant turd', but I kinda like the way you put it, and if it can benefit me on missions, then I'm in" said Sasuke, then Sasuke thought, 'yeah I'm gonna use the both of you to make me stronger'. Naruto punched him in the arm.

"you can count me in" said Sakura, who thought, 'I will get stronger'.

"So how about we start tonight" said Naruto, "oh, and would you guys mind if I bring Hinata-chan with me". they payed for their meals and walked out into the street.

"that hyuga freak" asked Sasuke. Naruto promptly knocked the shit outta Sasuke, who fell to the ground then jumped back up. "what was that for idiot".

"she's my best friend, don't talk about her like that" said Naruto.

"oh, well, get over it." said Sasuke.

"Whatever" said Naruto, who thought, 'yeah you'll think she's a freak when she kicks your ass'.

"So I'll see you guys at training ground at five" said Naruto.

"Yeah" and "Hn" were the replies. Naruto split from the other two and started off towards the Hyuuga house hold, when he heard a familiar voice scream.

Naruto had one thought: 'HINATA!'


	7. Hinata'

**Thanks for the reviews. Yay, holiday break is here. So maybe now I can update more often. **

**Ummm, some comments on some of the reviews:**

**DanI-chanime: umm…I literally laughed out loud. **

**So how did you guys like that cliffhanger. **

**First semester is done: 5 A+s 2 As and a 4.165 GPA. Hell Yeah.**

Ch. 7. Saving Hinata.

Naruto split from the other two and started off towards the Hyuuga house hold, when he heard a familiar voice scream.

Naruto had one thought: 'HINATA!'

Naruto deactivated his 50 lbs. casual wear weights from his arms legs and torso and took off at full speed. He reached the Hyuuga house and jumped clear over the wall that surrounded the place. Naruto scanned the area until he saw something that was just plain out weird. He saw what looked like a snake slithering across the ground with Hinata clutched in a pair of arms. Naruto ran and intercepted the snake-like figure. Naruto cut off the Snake from it's exit by throwing some shuriken into it's back and jumping in front of it with a kunai held out. What happened next perplexed Naruto to no end. The 'snake's' tail receded back into it's body, forming a human, who then stood. It was obviously a ninja of some sorts, but none that Naruto had ever seen or read about. The ninja stood up, holding Hinata over his shoulder. The ninja had long black hair, a white snake-like face coupled with slit, snake-like eyes. Naruto felt a scratching at the back of his head.

Naruto quickly went into his mindscape, kyuubi yelled, "use the brute fist, use the brute fist".

Naruto went back . The ninja was laughing, "I can tell you are HIS son. Maybe I should toy with you a little bit, and see what the nine tails brat is capable of…..but I can't do that right now, I now have one of the great Dojutsu's in my posession, so I have to be going now." The ninja started to melt through the ground.

Naruto reacted almost subconsciously. He shoot forward as if he was traveling the speed of light, he kneed the ninja in the stomach, launching the ninja through a tree, while simultaneously grabbing Hinata out of the ninja's grasp. The ninja stood and started to laugh, "my my my, it seems the little kyuubi brat has some power…maybe I should kill you now so you don't get in the way of my plans".

Naruto just stood there unfazed by the threat, he set down Hinata, and said, "come and get some, you freak".

Just then the ninja sprand forward, and started to combat Naruto hand to hand. Naruto would skillfully dodge the ninja's attacks while returning a strike or two of his own. While they were fighting a group of 5 Hyuuga ran up to assist, one of which was Hiashi. The snake-like ninja leapt back from Naruto. Naruto then said, "who are you, no ordinary ninja should be able to keep up with me" Naruto sprang forward and continued to attack the snake-man with the Brute fist. Just then the snake was attacked by a Hyuuga family member from behind. The snake dodged by doing a backflip over the man. Once behind the man, the snake-ninja snapped the neck of the Hyuuga member.

The snake-man laughed while sinking into the ground, "you may have spoiled my plans to get the Byakugan this time you little demon-brat, but next time I WILL have a Dojutsu. I will master all jutsu in this world, and create thousands more". Then he was gone.

Naruto walked over to where he had set Hinata down, he picked her up and turned to the Hyuuga member's, one of which happened to be Hiashi. He said, "lord Hiashi, do you have a medic in your house" just then Hinata came to consciousness. She looked up into Naruto's eyes. Naruto returned her look. He seemed to get lost in those big, beautiful lavender eyes. They had that look of seeing through your very soul, that look that says I'm yours. Naruto didn't know how long he stared into her eyes, but he felt like he was lost in those big lavender orbs. Lost in a sea of infinite beauty and bliss.

Hinata said, "N-naruto-k-kun….thank you so much." and she jumped down from his arms and embraced him. Naruto embraced her back. They hugged for a moment or two until they heard someone clear their throat.

They both looked up at Hiashi, who said, "I hate to interrupt this wonderful moment, but my daughter you need to get cleaned up…Naruto-san….while my daughter is preparing herself….would you care to take a little walk with me?"

"Yes father" said Hinata, who looked at Naruto then walked back to the Hyuuga house, escorted by 5 Hyuuga members who walked up while Naruto and Hinata were hugging.

"Yes lord-Hiashi" said Naruto.

"Very well, I have a place I would like to show you". Said Hiashi, "follow me".

"Yes sir," said Naruot.

Hiashi led Naruto to the back end of the Hyuuga house, to a place he had never been before. It was a garden. A rather large garden that had it's own creek running through it. Hiashi turned to Naruto, "do you know what this place is?"

"No, but it is beautiful" said Naruto, looking around and taking in the surroundings. The flowers; the lush, green, grass; the tall vibrant, various fruit trees.

Hiashi said, "that it is, that it is…this is my late wife's garden….it was her favorite place to come when she was still with us…..we would come here together and just enjoy each other's company, we would bring Hinata, and later we would bring Hanabi, though she probably can't remember because she was too young. This is also one of Hinata's favorite place's as well".

Naruto grew slightly suspicious, "that is quite an amazing detail…but why bring me here….why show me this?"

Hiashi smiled, "This place always seems to calm the mood, especially if you need to talk about something serious."

"Okay, what do you need to talk about" asked Naruto

"where you learned the brute fist" said Hiashi.

Naruto gulped, "I dunno what you're " Hiashi help up a hand.

"Don't play dumb with me….I know what I saw while you were fighting that snake-man" said Hiashi.

Naruto sighed, "I learned from…." he points at his stomach.

"but how" asked Hiashi.

"I make shadow clones at night while I sleep and he trains the clone, and then it's memories transfer to me when I awaken", said Naruto.

"Naruto…..I don't know if Kyuubi told you this but…..never mind…you'll find out soon enough…just forget what I said." said Hiashi.

"what, oh don't do this to me man….this is gonna kill me…come on…please please please please" begged Naruto.

"No, you need to find out on your own" said Hiashi.

Naruto slump's his shoulders disappointedly, "oh alright…say, lord Hiashi".

"Yes Naruto" replied Hiashi.

"Don't you think we should report this to the hokage" asked Naruto.

"Do not worry about that, I will handle that for you, and if you want you can double check behind me later."

"Oh okay, that's great, say, lord Hiashi." said Naruto.

"Yes Naruto" said Hiashi.

"Could I take Hinata with me to train some with my team, if that is alright with you" asked Naruto.

"well considering much of her growth and new confidence is because of you, yeah I'd say I approve of her accompanying you to your team training."

"Good," Said Naruto.

"Oh and Naruto" said Hiashi.

"yes lord Hiashi" replied Naruto.

"Please don't make me get the family sword after you, I would love to have grandchildren from a Namikaze one day" said Hiashi making a slicing motion with his arm over his manhood.

Naruto gulped, "y-y-y-y-yessss s-ss-s-s-s-sir…w-w-w-why w-w-w-would y-you b-bring something like t-that up…I don't even know what that really is"

"Oh really…then why are you so fazed by the threat…have you already been having perverted thoughts about my daughter" said Hiashi, with a slightly angry voice at the end.

Naruto paled. All of a sudden Hiashi was in front of him with a sword. He swung at Naruto who ducked and ran. Naruto said, "I haven't thought anything, I swear".

Hiashi says, while chasing Naruto, "Stop Naruto…I just wanna take a little of the TOP".

Naruto paled again with sweat running down his face, and ran even faster screaming, "stay away"

Just then Hinata opened the door to the garden and saw this scene. She slapped her palm to her forehead, "guys are such idiots".

Later, at the training grounds.

Naruto and Hinata walked up to the training ground. The waited a few minutes until Sakura walked up. Sakura said, "Hey Naruto-kun, Hinata-chan."

"Hey" and "Hello" were the replies.

A moment later Sasuke walked up with a tiny smile on his face. He said, "Naruto, Sakura….ummmmmmm"

"Hinata" said Hinata with a 'you know damn well who I am' tone.

"Oh yeah, Hinata" said Sasuke.

Naruto said, "Okay, I think we should train by means of a tournament of matches. It will be Hinata vs. Sasuke, and then me vs. Sakura, and the winner of those will fight"

"all right" said everyone.

The first match was Sasuke and Hinata. Naruto would be the "referee" for this match.

Naruto said, "okay, here's the 'rules'…1. I will call the match when I feel it is sufficient….2. We will try to avoid killing. And trust me, when I say we will 'try' I mean I will interrupt to stop any blow I think will kill someone.

They all nodded. Hinata and Sasuke both walked forward in the large open field. The both got down into stances. Hinata in the gentle fist, and Sasuke in a stance with his left leg turned to the front and his right to the back and his right hand on his pouch, with his left hand out front, palm facing out. Sasuke said, "So, are you ready to get wiped the floor with".

"I may not be as talented as you…yet….but I won't go down without one hell of a fight" said Hinata.

"oh we'll see about that" said Sasuke.

"You ready Hinata," she nodded, "you ready Sasuke" he nodded, "begin" said Naruto.

Sasuke shot forward and sliced Hinata across the chest, she looked perplexed for a moment, before poofing into smoke. Sasuke thought, 'a shadow clone, but how? Naruto must have taught it to her'. Just then Sasuke felt the ground underneath him erupt. He narrowly escaped a small explosion that had a radius of 5 meters, (about 15 feet). Sasuke had dodged by doing a few back hand springs, when he stopped he was barely able to lean to the side to dodge several kunai thrown at him, 'exploding shadow clone hidden underground, this girl is good. How much do you train her Naruto, and how good are you now'. He turned to the direction the kunai had come from but felt a kunai pressed against his back. He spun and slashed her again, she poofed again. He thought 'another shadow clone?'. Sasuke looked around then thought, 'oh wait, I need to get in some cover'. Sasuke jumped into a tree, he hid in the leaves expertly. He just barely dodged by jumping forward as Hinata descended upon him from above. She was now chasing him, she was attempting to hit him with some good old fashioned, painful, Gentle Fist strikes. He was dodging, and he noticed her Byakugan, and he said, "wow, this is all the Byakugan can do, I'm not impressed." Just then Sasuke started being pummeled from behind by some Gentle fist strikes. He was soon left a crimpled pile on the ground. "But How" he asked.

"Two words: Shadow clones" Hinata said.

Sasuke forced himself to stand up, he opened his eyes and one tomoe (little black 'symbol' in the sharing an' ) appeared. Hianta noticed that he had a new surge of chakra. She attacked him again, but he dodged them all flawlessly. Sasuke thought, 'this girl is serious, I need to end this quick. Even with this new sight, if I let this drag out, she'll wipe the floor with me'. Sasuke did some back hand springs to retreat, he pulled out a bit of wire attached to some kunai, then threw them to wrap the advancing Hinata and pin her to a tree, he walked up and placed a kunai to her neck, and said, "I win this time".

Hianta smiled, "Oh really".

Sasuke felt a kunai at his back, he smirked. Hinata looked worried, her Kunai sunk through Sasuke, she thought, 'a regular clone' (the one that's just and image). Hinata turned around to catch a slug in the face, sending her back into the same tree her shadow clone had been in, then Sasuke wrapped her in wire this time. He held a kunai to her throat again, "this time I know this is really you, I have won…you put up a hell of a fight, by all rights I should have lost…get used to the compliment, because that is the only one you will get from me."

Hinata let her head slump, Naruto called it, "the victor is Sasuke". Sasuke let Hinata down, she then went and sat down where Sakura was previously sitting. Now a Naruto clone was being the referee, and Naruto and Sakura both nodded and the clone said begin.

Naruto thought, 'hmmmm….I can't use too much on her, I'll have a little fun with this, then later I'll kick Sasuke's ass'. Naruto made some weak shadow clones, whom he had run at Sakura while he sneaked into the woods behind himself. Sakura had already destroyed the 20 some odd clones causing the one being the ref to say, "daman, your getting your ass handed to you by Sakura" to which the last clone, right before it was destroyed said, "hey, your me, you idiot". Sakura instantly looked around then ran into the woods, Naruto smirked and thought 'too easy'. He sent a new shadow clone to suicide run at Sakura, the clone got ten feet away from Sakura, who was hiding behind a tree, and exploded. (he stayed that far away so as not to hurt her, just to flush her out). Sakura jumped out of her hiding spot, and landed, right below Naruto. He, without any sound, slipped from his perch in a tree and fell right on top of Sakura. He pinned her to the ground, one hand in each of his, and his knees keeping hers pinned. He moved their hands to where he made a sign to make a shadow clone. The clone pulled out a kunai and held it to Sakura's throat. "I win" said Naruto.

Sakura smiled, "fine, whatever….but Naruto…GET THE HELL OFF ME!".

Naruto jumped up and ran off, dispelling his clone to send the memories to the clone waiting in the field. The clone announced to Sasuke and Hinata, "Naruto has won" he then dispelled.

Naruto and Sakura came walking into the clearing out of the woods, and Sakura hit naruto on the head. Naruto rubbed his head, "what was that for"

She said, "at the end there we were in a very compromising position."

He said, "what are you talking about. I wasn't even thinking about that. Wow Sakura, you're a pervert"

She just got a vein on her forehead, punched him on the head, and said, "Shut up and I'll be the ref for your and Sasuke's match".

They made it back to the other two. Naruto said, "Hey Sasuke I can tell you have little chakra left. How about we go take a lunch break and come back"

Sasuke replied, "hn…sure…whatever"

Naruto said, "how about Ichiraku ramen, on me"

Hinata said, "oh yeah, I can go for that"

Sakura and Sasuke both said, "sure".

A few moments later.

The group of Shinobi walked into the ramen stand. Teuchi looked up and said, "Oh Naruto, Hinata, ummmm oh yeah Sasuke and Sakura. What will you guys be having?"

"I'll have miso pork ramen, three bowls" said Naruto.

"I'll have the same just with two bowls" siad Hinata

Both Sakura and Sasuke ordered one bowl of beef ramen. (a/n: thank (enter whatever deity here) for ramen, as a broke college student, I know how great ramen is :D).

The group sat there, eating there food and chatting about the two matches. They were mainly chatting about how kickass Hinata had been during the battle. However, Hinata was being really humble.

"No, I wasn't really that great" said Hinata.

"Oh we beg to differ, we have all agreed, and we have a 3 to 1 vote Hinata, we win. You kicked ass." Said Naruto.

"yeah. You really did. If I hadn't unlocked a sliver of my sharing an I'd have lost, you were severely kicking my ass" said Sasuke with a smile. Sasuke then thought, 'wait, what the hell, I'm not suppose to get close to anyone. No friends, I am an avenger. I guess I can make a couple on my way to killing that bastard'

Hinata sighed, "oh okay, I guess I did okay"

Naruto stood up, pulled out a frog wallet, to which both girls giggled. "What? It is my little friend" said Naruto, to which Teuchi, Sakura, Sasuke, and Hinata all burst out laughing. Naruto blushed, pulled out money and paid for the meal. He said, "are you guys coming or not"

They all left out of the ramen shop and headed back to the training ground.

Once their, Hinata stood back while Sakura stood a little ways away from Naruto and Sasuke. She said, "Naruto" he nodded, "Sasuke" he nodded

She shouted. "BEGIN"


	8. Naruto vs Sasuke 1

**I am so so so so so so sorry for taking so long to update. My Christmas break was great and I procrastinated a lot…sorry….but then this semester has kept me busy because it is considerably harder than last semester. I am in Calculus 3, Chemical Engineering Calculations (ChemE 254), General Physics with Calculus 1 and Spanish 101. These classes are much harder than the ones I took last semester, but I have still managed to maintain straight A's so far. Yay for me. Anyways, thanks for the reviews, keep em coming.**

**I OWN NOTHING **

**On with the story**

**Ch. 8 Naruto vs. Sasuke.**

Sakura shouted, "begin".

Sasuke activated his one-tomoe sharingan sprang forward and slashed Naruto with a kunai. Naruto poofed and was replaced by a log. Sasuke dodged to the left as 3 kunai came whizzing out of the trees to his front-right. Sasuke jumped into the tree line, and made sure Naruto was not in a tree above him. Just then Naruto came running out of the trees with a spider on his head screaming, "Ahhhh get it off me".

This is when Sasuke said to himself quietly, "Baka, got you now". He threw several shuriken at Naruto. They hit and naruto poofed away. Sasuke said to himself, "A shadow clone, what a surprise".

"You're right, what a surprise" said Naruto from behind Sasuke.

Sasuke thought 'when did he…" but had to jump off the branch he was perched on, he turned in mid air and threw a kunai back at Naruto. This one also poofed. 'What the hell' Sasuke thought. Sasuke was flying backwards in the air, keeping his eyes on the tree line, he landed but was grabbed from behind in a full nelson by Naruto.

"What the hell, how did you do that…when did you get there"…..just then he remembered. The Naruto clone that first came out of the woods earlier had a spider on it. It must've been a hinge of a clone. "So you were the spider"

"yup" said Naruto.

"You know what's good about being taller than you dobe?" said Sasuke.

"What" asked Naruto.

Sasuke bent over and spun to the right really fast, flinging Naruto over his back and over his shoulder and sending him to the ground. Sasuke fell onto Naruto's face with his knee. Naruto poofed once again. "Damn it" Sasuke said, "how many more clones do you intend to use. Come out and fight me."

Naruto walked out into the clearing. "Alright, whatever you wish"

Naruto and Sasuke stared each other down for a long minute. Then they both took off running in the same direction, in parallel lines with one another, staring at the other. They both slid to a stop and threw a kunai at the other. The two kunai clashed in mid-air and landed on the ground . The ninja just charged at each other, and commenced to battle with only taijutsu. Kyuubi spoke to Naruto right before they reached each other, 'don't use…' Naruto cut him off 'I know not to use that brutge fist kyuubi….damn.'

The two ninja ducked, dodged, swung, punched, kicked, kneed, and elbowed but were an even match. They jumped apart after about five straight minutes of just taijutsu.

Sasuke said, "you are worthy of being tied with me for rookie of the year….."

"yeah, I guess so" sais Naruto, thinking, 'oh you don't even know half of my true strength'.

Naruto turned and ran into the forest behind him, and Sasuke followed suit. They both jumped up into the trees and started jumping from limb to limb. Sasuke jumped from limb to limbe, all of a sudden Naruto made a clone that jumped back at Sasuke. Sasuke prepared to slash at it, but then jumped over it just in time before it exploded. He landed back on the limb after and turned around. 'That was a close one,' he thought to himself. He turned back around and continued to follow Naruto. He jumped on 10 more limbs, then as he landed on the 11th one, a small beetle exploded and made Sasuke jump to the right to avoid being seriously injured. He jumped straight out of the tree line and into the open. 'Oh shit' he thought, 'I'm playing into his plan.'

Sasuke looked around and noticed he was right back to where Hinata and Sakura were, they had apparently started up a conversation and were giggling and having fun.

Sasuke got annoyed, "you two having fun"

They both turned to him and nodded, then continued with what they were doing. Sasuke ran over to the center of the field and got down in a fighting stance, then yelled, "Come on Naruto, I don't have all day."

Naruto walked out of the forest, and walked to where he would be in front of Sasuke. "Alright, if that is what you wish, again…..last time it went no where."

"Yeah, this time I'm gonna kick your ass" said Sasuke.

They charge at each other again and began to combat with tai jutsu. Sasuke swung a left at Naruto, who caught it and flipped Sasuke onto the ground, who then kicked Naruto's legs out from underneath him and got Naruto into an arm bar. Naruto brought his legs up and wrapped his legs around Sasuke's throat. They now looked like a human knot. They were trying to make the other one give up, Sasuke said, "you gonna give up now".

"not a chance" said Naruto.

"This is going no where" said Sasuke

"What ever you say Sasuke" replied Naruto.

Just then Sasuke was forcefully held from behind. Sakura took Sasuke's arms and held them behind his back while Hinata held a kunai to his throat.

"What the hell is going on" said Sasuke, "why are you interfering?"

The two girls poofed and became two Naruto's, "we win".

Sakura and Hinata emerged from the forest and Sakura claimed the victory to be Naruto's, "The winner is….Naruto-kun."

Naruto and Sasuke got out of their human knot and bowed to each other then bumped fist. Naruto said, "I think we can call that a draw for the record".

"Naw man, you exploited me being a little impatient," said Sasuke, "you get the win."

"Thanks man" said Naruto.

"you did great Naruto" said Sasuke.

"yeah you too," said Naruto

"you did wonderful Naruto" said Sakura

"yeah, you did AMAZING" said Hinata.

Naruto thought, 'I didn't think I did THAT amazing, there is something fishy going on here'.

Naruto thought for a minute then he heard Kyuubi burst out laughing. 'What's so funny Kyuubi' thought Naruto to Kyuubi.

Kyuubi told Naruto in his mind, 'you don't even realize it yet…pricelesss…'

'realize what kyuubi' siad Naruto.

'you're in a genjutsu…you need to break it' said Kyuubi.

'oh okay…ummmm how do I do that again' said Naruto.

'ughhhhhhh…..just use a little of my power and it will surge your chakra network in an instant, and cause the chakra flow to your brain to be stalled for an instant, stopping the genjutsu….' said Kyuubi.

'okay…' Naruto focused on Kyuubi's chakra and used a slive of it. All of a sudden Naruto shattered the genjutsu and woke up in the human knot again. And his clones hadn't yet come over and gotten Sasuke. Sasuk released his arm bar on Naruto and punched Naruto in the face, and jumped back. He turned around and threw kunais at the clones.

"you're too predictable dobe" said Sasuke.

"oh really" said Naruto.

"Yeah, I'd say you are" said Sasuke.

Sasuke looked down and saw a bug, he stepped on it and it puffed. "see, you're predictable".

"humph" said Naruto.

Just then, all the rocks around sasuke poofed into Narutos that all grabbed him and held him down. There were two Narutos holding down each limb of Sasukes and one holding down his head by his forehead. The real Naruto casually walked over and placed a kunai to Sasuke's neck and then Sakura and Hinata jumped down from their perch in a tree and

Sakura said, "naruto you won….baka…."

Naruto dispelled all of his clones and let Sasuke get up. Naruto offered his hand and said "that was a great sparring match man, good job."

Sasuke took his hand said, "thanks….but I'll win next time…but when did you place all those clones around us as stones"

"when you were focusing on keeping me in that genjutsu, my two clones made other clones that henged into rocks" said Naruto.

"Ohhhhhh….that's how" said Sasuke, "that's pretty clever"

Sakura and Hinata walked over, "that was virtually a tie, I'm sure Sasuke could have found a way out of that, but I was just getting bored of the fight….you guys could go on for hours sparring in the ninja ways because you're both so good….I just didn't want to waist the rest of the day….it's getting late." Said Sakura.

"yeah I'll agree to that" said Hinata.

Just then Kakashi did his traditional entrance and said, "yo".

"Kakashi-sensei what are you doing here" asked Sakura.

"just telling you guys to be at the training grounds at 10 tomorrow for our first mission." he said. Then he left in the same manner he arrived.

They all nodded and started walking off towards the main part of the village, when at a cross roads they said there goodbyes, Sasuke and Sakura walking off in the same direction, while Hinata and Naruto walked off in the other.

Naruto said, "so Hinata, how was today….did you like the sparring matches"

"Yeah, but I wish I could've beaten Sasuke" she said.

"yeah, well you came closer than I did to actually beating him beating him" said Naruto.

"yeah I guess so" said Hinata.

"listen, don't worry Hianta, you're strong enough, and you'll improve with time, trust me" He said.

"thanks Naruto-kun" Hianta said.

They rounded a corner and found themselves at the Hyuuga Manner/household/estate/whatever you want to call it.

The turned to look at each other then Naruto grinned and said, "see you later Hinata-chan, it was nice hanging out with you"

"It was fun….see you later Naruto-kun" she said.

She went into her house and went to her room. She did the usual routines and went to sleep.

Naruto ran home, changed clothes, and jumped into bed. Before he fell asleep he made a shadow clone and said, "you know what to do."

The clone nodded and simply sat down in the floor.

The clone was in his mindscape, where Kyuubi was patiently awaiting him.

"What are we doing tonight Kyuubi" asked Naruto.

"tonight you are going to die" sais Kyuubi.


	9. One hell of a night

**Hey everyone! Mrpeeples here to say that I'm sorry for the long wait for the update. Anyways, yeah, so, here's the next chapter. By the way, Kyuubi is already in his "human" form. **

Previously on K.A.

"What are we doing tonight," Naruto asks.

"Tonight you're gonna die" Kyuubi says.

Ch. 9 "A hell of a night"

Naruto gulped, and then thought, 'oh hell, I don't stand a chance against him, oh well, if I die, I'm gonna go down swinging'. He then said, "I thought that if I died you died."

Kyuubi laughs and says., "it is true, however, I'm not going to KILL you per say, im just gonna take over your body." Then Kyuubi gets into a brute fist stance.

The instant kyuubi got into his stance Naruto inwardly smirked to himself. Then he got down in his own stance. Naruto then waited, and soon Kyuubi rushed him screaming, "im gonna kill you brat!"

Kyuubi went to strike Naruto across the face, however Naruto did a back flip while at the same time sending a solid kick to kyuubi's chin. This made Kyuubi only stall a second, as he was quickly following Naruto, who was doing back hand springs to get away. Soon, Naruto reached the "wall" in the training area and began to run up it backwards and as he did he made his most usual hand sign. Kyuubi stood there and looked at him awkwardly when he all of a sudden felt himself be hit in the spine 10 times by some brute fist strikes. Courtesy of the Shadow clone Naruto made that manifested itself behind kyuubi.

Kyuubi spins around and dispatches the clone with one brute fist shot to the chest. He spun back around to face Naruto. The entire motion took around half a second. Naruto thinks, "damn that was fast".

Kyuubi looks to Naruto, "hmm….that was a little impressive, having your clone spawn BEHIND me."

"Well, you know, gotta use what I can" the blonde replied while getting back down into his stance.

Kyuubi shot forward with tremendous speed and delivered a brute fist strike to Naruto's neck. This caused Naruto to fall down and start coughing up blood. Kyuubi merely laughs and says, "kid, I thought you would have improved more than this."

At that instant, the Naruto on the ground pooofed out of existence. 'Shadow clone?' Kyuubi Thought. Just then he turned around to meet a very powerful brute strike from Naruto directly into his temple. Kyuubi fell from the wall and slammed into the ground below before he quickly jumped back up. "how the fuck did you do that kid?" he screamed.

"not telling you fur-ball" said Naruto. Dropping into his Brute fist stance.

Kyuubi thought, 'time to stop going easy'. Kyuubi then shot forward and began a series of punches and kicks that, although blocked at first by Naruto, began to hit their marks with little resistance. After it was all said and done, Naruto was left a mess on the ground. Kyuubi laughed then said, "you should give up and let me have your body, don't worry, I promise not to hurt your friends... Not really, I'm gonna kill them the slowest of all. Oh, and the Hyuuga girl, I'm gonna have a little 'fun' with her".

Naruto, who was nearly incapacitated, suddenly felt rage beyond anything he could comprehend. He lost all thought for an instant, jumping up and screaming, "like hell you will". however, it was just then that something very peculiar happened. Naruto's face visibly relaxed and became very stoic. It appeared as if the kid had lost all emotion.

Kyuubit then thought, 'there we go, now things will be interesting.'

Naruto then rushed Kyuubi. When Naruto was within 5 ft. of Kyuubi, Kyuubi jumped in the air and attempted a whirlwind kick that failed because Naruto slid underneath him and then came up from behind and hit a quick but powerful strike to the back of Kyuubi's neck. Naruto followed this up with a strike to the lower spine of Kyuubi. However, with these two strikes, Naruto actually blended his Brute fist with that of the Gentle fist, and not only used the Brute fist to do major structural damage, but also sent chakra out to interfere with Kyuubi's chakra around his spinal cord. This caused Kyuubi's human form to revert back to his small fox form, and then to a puddle of red chakra on the ground. Behind Naruto, in the cage, the real Kyuubi opened his eyes and said, "you insufficient little whelp, how dare you…."

Naruto cut him off, "fuck you kyuubi, you deserved what you got….."

Kyuubi cut him off with a loud laughter.

"What's so funny," asks the blonde.

"Well, it is the fact that I accomplished what I needed." said the fox.

"And what might that be" asked the blond.

"Well, the past couple of months I noticed that you haven't been seeing my subtle hints to implement the Hyuuga's tactic of sending chakra into the area of the strike. Well, I needed you to see it on your own, so I decided giving you some motivation would have helped you do it. Tell me, do you remember how you did it?" said the Kyuubi.

"Wait, you're telling me that was a test, that wasn't all of your power" asked the blond.

"oh goodness no, that was maybe one-ten-thousandth of my strength, maybe even less. Well, it is because the strength of my little clone is directly proportional to the amount of chakra I can give it, and I can only so much chakra to you through the seal before the seal shuts me out. So, yeah, that is how strong the clone was. Anyways, answer my question, do you remember how you did it, or how you came to think of it" said Kyuub.

"Well yeah, as I was fighting you, I was thinking that you were gonna probably kill me, and I knew just the brute fist wouldn't be enough. Then I remembered that your clone seems to be made completely of chakra that is reshaped into the form I was fighting. Then I remembered Hinata telling me that the Gentle Fist works by sending Chakra into an opponents chakra system to disrupt it. So I then thought that I could do that to you, but only on a more massive scale by sending a load of chakra into your system. It was really a gamble." said Naruto.

"pretty good observation and thought process. However, how did you know to strike the back of my neck and my lower back" asked kyuubi.

"I figured that because the body's nervous system uses the spinal cord as a causeway for sending signals, it would be a very sensitive area. The first times I hit you in the back ,it was just me testing the amount of chakra required to actually make a difference. It doesn't surprise me it takes a lot. In fact, im exhausted. Sakura told me a lot about the nervous system. I swear, when that girl quit being such a fan-girl, she became quite a nerd. Anyways, yeah, that is just about it." said the blond.

"okay, but I have to tell you something disappointing" said Kyuubi.

"what is it Kyuubi" asked the blonde.

"Well, you have become strong, really strong for a genin." said Kyuubi.

"And….that's bad how" said the blond.

"well think about it, if you are currently 10 times stronger than any other genin, you may attract unwanted attention to yourself. Do you follow me." said Kyuubi.

"not really" said Naruto.

"if you have a really strong opponent, one which you feel threatened by, then won't you try to snuff your opponent out before they get any stronger" said Kyuubi.

"ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh I get it now….so it's almost like I've gotten too strong." said the blond.

"no, not too strong overall, but too strong for your age. I have devised a solution to this problem however" said Kyuubi.

"what is it" asked Naruto.

"A seal" said Kyuubi.

"a seal….." said Naruto then got a confused face, "how will that help us?"

"well, we can seal away a certain amount of your power so that you aren't so much stronger than your genin friends" saidd Kyuubi.

"that can't work, if I go back down to their level, then I'll be in danger from stronger opponents, like jounin who might want me dead". said Naruto.

"you misunderstand, I don't mean to permanently seal away your abilities, just to place a seal so that you have to forcibly remove the seal to gain access to the powers. In other words, it is like a locked door, which on the other side has a portion of your powers. Only, THIS door needs to bee made of three foot thick titanium and be locked by three different locks that alternate codes" said Kyuubi.

The blonde gave a confused look at the description of the metaphorical door. Kyuuubi sighed, "the seal must be really strong so that it is hard for you to get through"

"but why" said Naruto

"the point is to keep you from using some of your abilities subconsciously. By making it to where you must put forth a lot of effort to get your abilities, not only will you hide your abilities, but you will also not tap into them all the time without thinking about it." said Kyuubi.

"oh okay I get it….wait, you speak as if you've taught me all that you can so far" said Naruto.

"Well…almost…we're not that far off…..we just have to train you until you can easily infuse chakra into your brute hits….also, you will need to do the seal" said Kyuubi.

"what" exclaimed the bond.

"Im not that good with seals." said Kyuubi, "however, you are from a clan that is naturally masters at seals, and lets just say your father was a master of seals." said Kyuubi.

"are you kidding me, wow…..wait….." said the blonde, kyuubi thought 'oh shit I slipped,' the blond continued, "you know who my family was"

"no, I heard rumors that he was a master at seals, and Uzumaki's were known far and wide for their seals" said Kyuubi.

Naruto thought then asked, "I have my mothers name? Wait, YOU heard rumors, but.."

"yeah…listen kid…it is not my place to tell you your lineage, you will learn it in time" interrupted kyuubi.

"oh okay…what ever…it's not like I care, you can't miss something you never had..anyways, do you know of any good scrolls for seals" asked the blonde.

"just look into your memory of all the things I taught you, I put some very basic sealing in there…see what you can learn of the basics, then go to the library and get some scrolls and such on upper level seals" said Kyuubi.

"that will be a problem, the library doesn't let me in" said Naruto.

"Well, go to the hokage and tell the old man of this bullshit" said Kyuubi.

"oh okay" said Naruto.

Three months later.

Naruto looked at himself in the mirror. He looked at the seal on his stomach and then to the one above it. The new seal was a circle, with three tridents protruding from the center to the circle with equal distance between each. Above each point the trident touched the circle were a different symbol. Five for the elements, two with the symbols for heaven and earth, and two with the symbols for light and dark. Naruto thought back to the day he placed the seal on

**Flashback**

Naruto had made a shadow clone before he went to sleep, he had brought up the plans from his memory in front of kyuubi. Kyuubi looked at the seal and smiled, then said, "very nice kid. I can make out a complex storage seal in the center, and nine different locks"

"yeah, it was a pain in the ass to make, but worth it….I think I'll make myself 50% of my current strength" said Naruto.

"Well, then you'll be about as strong as that Uchiha, and five times stronger than the average Genin" said the Kyuubi.

"Yeah, I figured as much….well, here we go" said Naruto as the clone began to draw the seal onto the original's body.

When he was done, kyuubi asked him, "hey kid, how did you half your power without sealing away half your chakra, and sealing away only 10% of it?"

"Well, I took out some of the acute details of the brute fist, and some of my strength and speed, along with the 10% decrease it is about a decrease to about 52% of my strength. Then took a little more strength and now it is at about 50 %, give or take a half a percent" the blond said.

"oh okay ,that's good. Now we can breathe easy, as we won't attract any unwanted attention, and if you find an opponent that is too strong, you can simply unlock the seal" said Kyuubi.

"SIMPLY! You think it would be simple to unlock this seal, it would take me over an hour to do so, so I would only be able to do it with prior notice of an enemy, or after we retreat, or using shadow clones to fight while I unseal it." Naruto exclaimed.

"oh, well, I guess that is good. Now you really can't dip into your abilities when you don't really need to." said Kyuubi.

"you can say that again". said Naruto..

**Flashback end**

Naruto sighed. He put on his clothes. Today he was wearing a pair of black pants, a blue shirt that had the same symbol on his shoulders as his old jumpsuit had on its back, and in the same color too. He left to meet his team at the Hokage tower where they would be assigned another mission. Lord knows he hoped it wasn't another D-ranked mission, 'I won't be able to stand having to catch that fucking cat again' he thought. He then thought, 'well, we really have become a team. Especially since we've been having weekly training sessions every Saturday that last half a day, and then we just hang out the other half. Sakura has really become a strong kunoichi, and Sasuke has opened up a little and become a little nicer, Kakashi-sensei does train Sasuke a little more than me and Sakura, but I can understand. Anyways, time to get to the tower'.

5 minutes later.

Naruto waited for his team at the front of the Hokage tower. His team arrived and he said "Hey kakashi-sensei, Sakura-chan, Sasuke" he gave Sasuke and Sakura each a fist bump. They walked up to the hokage's office, knocked, and when they were told to enter they did so.

Sitting in the office was the hokage and iruka and a couple others.

2 minutes later

"I think it's ridiculous. Old man, we deserve a higher ranked mission, we have the highest success rank than any other team, and yet we have no C-rank missions like some other teams" said Naruto.

"that is very true, but there aren't any C-rank missions available that fit your teams skill set" said the Hokage.

"Oh don't give me that crap, I know there is at least one. I also know the real reason you won't give us any missions" and he made his eyes look down as if to say, 'the seal on my stomach old man, I know what's in there'.

The hokage nodded, "but I still believe that your team is not yet ready, besides, we have a host of D-rank missions that need to be taken care of….like catching that cat again"

Kakashi raised his hand to take the floor, "if I may hokage-sama, I agree with Naruto. I can vouch for my teams skills, and I know they are ready for a C-ranked mission."

The hokage thought on it for a good 3 minutes then gave up, "oh alright, you win this time Naruto."

"wippeeee" said Naruto, jumping up and down.

The Hokage then pulled out a scroll and handed it to kakashi before speaking, "your mission is to escort a bridge builder back to his home in the Land of Waves."


	10. Chapter 10

HELLO EVERYONE. I KNOW IT HAS BEEN LIKE, A FREAKING YEAR SINCE I UPDATED….SORRY. I HAVE NOT REASON OTHER THAN I SIMPLY GOT BUSY. ANYWAYS…ENJOY.

Ch. 10 The beginning of the wave

'this mission sounds cool…but I have to stay in character,' naurto thought before saying, "aw man, this mission is gonna stink, why do we have to escort some stupid bridge builder back to his country?""Naruto..it's because he feels threatened by bandits and what not," said the Hokage.

"and…bandits are worthy of my awesomeness why," asked Naruto as he puffed his chest then beat it once.

"because you're not as awesome as you think you are," said the Hokage, to which Naruto exhaled very deflated.

Sasuke and Sakura laughed, while Kakashi had his eye-smile. The the hokage cleared his throat and said, "okay, enough playing around, it is time for you to meet your client…Tazuna…you may enter now"

The door opened and an older looking man walked in. He looked half drunk as he turned to the hokage and said, "this is the team I get….what in the world is this…I requested good ninja"

The hokage opened his mouth, but Naruto beat him to it, "I'll have you know that Sasuke and I were the two top, tied for first place, boys to graduate this year, and sakura was one of the top girls in our class to graduate this year."

Tazuna said, "that's just it…you graduated this year"

The hokage said, "I assure you Tazuna-san that this team is one, if not the, best genin squad I have. It is headed by the famous Kakashi, of the sharingan."To this Tazuna's eyes widened and he said, "okay, I guess I'll accept them"

"no one asked for your acceptance" said Naruto.

"shut up pipsqueak" said Tazuna. To which Naruto got visibly angry. Sakura chuckled while Sasuke grinned slightly and Kakashi ignored them, for he was to interested in the book he was reading.

The hokage said, "Kakahi, you and your team are dismissed."

Kakashi nodded and shut his book then said, "alright….Tazuna, Sasuke, Sakura, Pipsqueak…get your things ready and report to the main gate in one hour."

Naruto screamed, "why you…" then ran at Kakashi, who 'eye-smiled' then disappeared.

At this point Sakura, the hokage, tazuna, and even Sasuke were bursting out laughing.

Fourty five minutes later.

Naruto was walking towards the main gate when he bumped into hinata.

"Hey Hinata, how you doing," he asked.

"I'm good, how bout you," she replied.

He had a flashback and the word pipsqueak sounded in his head, he shook his head of the memory then said, "I'm good. I'm just heading over to the main gate. Bout to start on my first real mission"

"That sounds fun. What is it" she asked.

"We're escorting a bridge builder back to his home land in Wave…boring" he said.

"nonsense, you might encounter some really strong…bandits maybe" she half said half asked.

"yeah, I guess…I just feel like bandits will only be a waist of my time." he said."yeah, well think about it. The hokage can't really send a more skilled team for bandits can he…this means you being in one of the best genin squads makes it to where you will get some of the missions that are just too dangerous for most genin, but not dangerous enough for a team of chunnin or jounin." she said.

"I never thought of it that way…wow you really are smart hinata," he said.

"thanks" she said.

"don't mention it….oh crap, I gotta go…see ya later Hinata-chan" he said as he ran away.

"yeah, see you Naruto-kun" she replied.

Later at the main gate.

"Okay guys, let's see….Sasuke, do you have plenty of wire…Sakura, do you have medical supplies, do I have plenty of seals…I assume we all have plenty of kunais and shurkens" said Naruto as the team went over a sort-of checklist before their always-late sensei arrived.

Tazuna was slightly impressed at the thoroughness of the team.

Ten minutes later Kakashi arrived and said…"sorry, I was…busy"

"Wow Sensei, you're getting lazy on your excuses" to which Kakashi just sighed.

"Alright, it's time to move out" he said, as they began to walk off…everyone except Naruto.

Everyone stopped, looked back, then Tazuna asked, "Hey pippy the pipsqueak, are you okay?""I'm fine A-hole, I just have an idea…Kakashit sensei how about we….."Later.

Naruto and company were walking down the dirt road when they walked through a couple of water puddles. A few seconds later, the group was attacked by two ninja's with metal claws and chains. They wrappe their chain around Kakashi, then turned Kakahit into mince-meat, stunning the younger ninja. The two ninja jumped between the temporarily stunned genin, one of them stabbing Naruto in the throat, and the other stabbing Sasuke in the back of the head, while they both turned around, one stabbed Sakura in the stomach, while the other stabbed Tazuna in the throat. In a matter of seconds the entire group had been killed before they could really react. That's when all the bodies 'poofed' into smoke. "What", yelled one of them before someone grabbed one of his arms and broke over there knee then using that same arm to wrap around in front of his neck, then he felt the familiar press of a kunai against the back of his neck. He looked back and saw Naruto. His eyes widened before he started to fall, blacking out the last thing he saw was his teammate in a similar state at the hands of the Onxy haired boy.

Kakashi walked up to Naruto and said, "your plan to have a group of doppleganger kage bunshin henged to look like us walk ahead of us was pretty great. I wish I would've thought of it myself. It proved really useful. Now, let's see if we can get any info out of these guys."

"Thanks, I was just trying to be useful" said the Genin.

Kakashi nodded then turned to the two ninja tied to the tree. "hmmm….let me see…." he pulled out a knife and walked towards the ninja. "who sent you?"

"Gato did." said the one on the left.

"Is there anyone else did this Gato hire" asked Kakashi.

"No, we won't tell you anything" said the one on the right.

Kakashi looked at the one on the left who was obviously the more scared of the two, he then said, "alright" and slashed the throat of the one on the right. The sound of gurgling and the ninja choking on his own blood could be heard as the ninja's body and legs twitched and convulsed until he died.

The ninja on the left then said, "Gato hired two other, but I don't know them I swear. In fact, I think we're stronger than they are"

Kakashi gave him an eye-smile and said, "thanks" then slashed that ninja's throat too.

Sakura yelled, "hey, he told you what you needed"

Kakashi turned to her, but Naruto spoke up from next to her, "and…do you expect us to let him live? We have no way of transporting him back to the village for further questioning, and thinking that leaving him here tied up and them not trying to kill us later is just naïve."

"but we shouldn't have to be so cold-hearted" she said as she shivered.

Kakashi said, "over time you will learn to turn your heart off when you need to…but it never makes killing easier…but it is something that must be done for the safety of our village."

Sakura nodded.

Kakahsi turns to tazuna and says, "we need to have a little talk."Tazuna gulps then nods. Kakashi says, "you lied to us. You knew this mission would run the risk of running into ninja, but you withheld it, why is that?"

"it's simple, I can't afford a higher ranked mission…my land is strapped for money ever since gato came in and took over…he is a tyrant and is sucking up all the resources and money of the land of waves." said Tazuna.

"wait, is this gato the one that owns the…" stated Sakura.

"yes, but that is just a front for all his illegal activities." said Tazuna.

"Well, I'm writing the hokage…."

"Wait, please reconsider" begged tazuna

Kakashi thought a while, then told his team. "I will not make this decision on my own, we will take a vote".

"I won't leave a nation of people to fend for themselves under oppression" said Naruto, "I vote we continue."Sakura nodded and said, "I agree."Then sasuke said, "if there are stronger ninja I can test myself against then I'll do it"

Kakashi sighed, "Ok, but I'm sending word to the hokage for a jounin team to meet us at the boat we have arranged."

Tazuna nodded, "ok."

Kakashi summoned a messenger bird and scribbled in it, and let it fly.

"all right, let's go" said Kakashi.

The group started to walk off when Sasuke said, "oppression? That's a pretty big word for you Naruto" to which Naruto hit Sauke on the back of the head and said, "shove it duck-butt"

Then everyone laughed.

However, no one, not even Kakashit, noticed that as the messenger bird flew higher it was struck by an almost invisible projectile. This messenger bird would lay there in the road a few hours until a farmer and his cattle walk over it later that day, effectively crushing the note…and the teams hopes for reinforcements.


	11. Enter Zabuza Momochi

Hi there, here is the next chapter. Slight spolier, you have been warned. Btw, Naruto manga was good this week, but….why did Kishi have to use like seven pages for everyone talking about Naruto, I mean, he could've used a page or two where almost everyone had one of those smaller panels. I don't know…oh well.

Ch. 11 Enter Zabuza Momochi.

The team and Tazuna were now on a small boat heading towards Wave.

Naruto was asking Sakura and Sasuke, "Have you guys checked your supplies…alright…"

Kakashi smiled and thought, 'Minato-sensei, he is a natural-born leader, just like his father.'

"All right, this is as far as I take you" said the ferryman.

Tazuna replied, "thank you for coming this far"

The man nodded and pushed off and left.

The group left and started to walk down a road.

"Hey Tazuna, is there a hotel in town," asked Kakashi.

"Yeah, but it is in shambles…it's a place that Gato's thugs use as a hangout…I wouldn't sleep their, you guys should stay with me and my family" said Tazuna.

"Yeah sure" said Kakashi.

Naruto was walking along with the group, then he heard it. A faint exhale of breath coming from a bush about 10 yards ahead and to the right of the road. He thought, 'so one of their next assassins is here already…time to put on a show'

"Allright" yelled Naruto as he ran forward then pretended to listen intently, "there" he yelled as he threw a kunai at a bush directly across from where his true goal was.

Tazuna said, "kid don't scare us like that"

Naruto walked back to the group, "sorry bout that" then looked at Kakashi and nodded his head back.

Then, from the same bush he threw the kunai in earlier, another kunai came whizzing out, going straight across the road into the other bush.

"What the hell" said Sakura. Then a Naruto shadow clone walked out from behind the bush. "Oh".

Kakashi walked over to check where Naruto's kunai had went. It had went through and struck a tree on the other side, and beneath it was a whit snow rabbit. Then the rabbit darted out onto, then down, the road.

Sakura started to yell and ramble about how Naruto should not hurt the 'cute rabbit'

However, Kakashi, Naruto and Sasuke all were thinking along the same lines, 'a white rabbit, at this time of year…substitution'

Just then the sound of something big slicing through air could be heard. Kakashi went wide eyed and yelled, "everyone down now."

Kakashi tackled Tazuna to the ground, as Naruto tackled Sakura, and Sasuke ducked. A giant sword went over them and imbedded into a tree, then a man appeared out of nowhere onto it's handle.

Kakashi stood and walked forward a little bit, "well well well, if it isn't Zabuza Momochi…the demon of the mist".

"and you are Sharingan Kakashi…the copy ninja" said Zabuza.

"Well…I didn't expect someone as high caliber as you to stoop so low as to be hired by scum like Gato" said Kakashi.

"I don't have to answer to you" said Zabuza, "but I just need the money for some personal reasons"

"I though he wasn't going to say anything" said Sakura.

"I said that much….because you are all going to die" said Zabuza.

A thick mist suddenly appeared, then Zabuza disappeared. He started listing off some areas of the body that were fatal. All of a sudden, an intense killing intent was felt by all of the members of the group. Tazuna, and the three genin were all about to shit their pants, and Sasuke was the worst because it was giving him flashbacks to when Itachi had manhandled him the night of the Uchiha massacre.

Kakashi said, "Don't worry everyone, I don't let my comrades die…I will protect you with my life"

"is that so" said Zabuza as he appeared in between the genin and zabuza.

As Zabuza was swinging his sword, Kakashi moved lighting fast and stabbed Zabuza in the stomach, Naruto said, "behind you" as the Zabuza in front turned to water. Then Kakashi was cut in half. Then Kakashi turned to water, 'water clone' said Zabuza confused. Then a kunai was placed to his neck and Kakashi said, "end of the road".

As Kakashi was about to slice his throat, Zabuza appeared behind him, then Zabuza swung, Kakashi ducked underneath it, but Zabuza kicked him into the water nearby. Then as Kakashi surfaced, Zabuza said, "Water prison jutsu." Just then a ball of water encased Kakahi, one that Kakashi would not be able to escape on his own, and Zabuza had to keep his hand in it to maintain it. "This water is as strong as steal…good luck getting out…meanwhile…I think it's time to kill your little twerps and relieve you of babysitting kakashi." He put one hand up and said, "water clone jutsu" A water clone rose from the water.

"So brats, what do you think is gonna happen now…you think you are ninja. You aren't ninja. When you are so used to hovering between life and death, when you get so dangerous you are listed in the bingo book, THEN you can call yourselves ninja." he said, Then he kicked Naruto in the face, sending him flying away. Sasuke charged, but just got thrown away.

Kakashi said, "Listen to me everyone, run…you will not stand a chance against him. He can't leave this prison jutstu, and his clone shouldn't make it too far away. Run"

Naruto thought, 'yeah, wasn't it you who told us in training not to ever leave a comrade, that only those worse than trash leave a comrade…besides…we'd die if we ran' Sasuke thought the same exact thing. The two looked at each other and nodded. Naruto made around 30 clones that ran and dog piled onto Zabuza. In that time Naruto came up with a better plan.

Zabuza pushed all the clones off of him they all went sliding back. Naruto stood up then tossed a large shuriken to Sasuke. Sasuke felt how heavy it was then smiled. He spun around, then the jumped up, and threw the shuriken. It went by the water clone and went for the real Zabuza. He simply caught it, he wondered as to why it felt a little heavy, then he noticed the second one coming…at the last second he jumped over it. The one behind him poofed and was replaced by Naruto that threw a kunai at him. Zabuza was forced to release the prison jutsu…as he spun the shuriken to throw it at what he thought was Naruto until that one poofed as well, 'what..' then, the freed Kakashi started to come at him, he started to swing the shuriken at him until it poofed and became the real Naruto. Zabuza front flipped over Kakahi then kicked Naruto back to land.

"You got lucky you little shits" said Zabuza.

"Don't kid yourself, they got the better of you and you know it" said Kakahi.

"It matters not, it's down to you and me again Kakashi" said Zabuza.

"Yeah, but this time…I'm pissed" said Kakashi.

The two jumped away from each other as they ran through hand signs. They each shot identical water dragon at each other, and the two jutsus canceled each other out. Then Kakashi copied what Zabuza was going to say as he was saying it, then Kakashi sent a jutsu at him before he even did it. Zabuza was totally confused and shaken up, as the giant vortex went straight at him, eventually leaving him against a tree.

"can you…see the future" asked Zabuza.

"Yes, and this is the day you die" said Kakashi, preparing the death blow.

Then two senbon from out of nowhere fly into Zabuza's neck.

Then the ninjas saw a person standing on a branch of a tree about 30 yards away, "you were right, today was his last day alive. I must thank you though, I have been tracking him for days now." Then the boy disappeared in a gust of wind and reappeared next to Zabuza, whose pulse was being checked by Kakashi.

Kakashi said, "He is dead".

Naruto thought, 'that's strange, senon…time to put on the dummy act' then said, "Hey! Who do you think you are!" As he ran over to stop in front of the boy.

"Naruto!" Kakashi said.

"what, I mean we were pushed to our limits with Zabuza, and that means something since you're here…but he just shows up and bam just like that"

Kakashi reached down and held both of Naruto's shoulder's in his hands, "I know I know, but this is the ninja world. You have to understand there are children younger than you, and stronger than me" as he shot a glance at Sasuke, clearly alluding to Itachi. Sasuke gulped.

Naruto said, "I know Sensei, but but…." he was facing away from the boy, and towards Kakashi, he had a 'don't you get it' look on his face. "I mean, how could he just show up and kill Zabuza with senbon just before you were about to kill him"

"indeed, I am sorry I profited off of your hard work, but I must go now, I need to dispose of this body" Kakashi's eyes widened as he realized the err of his judgment a minute too late as the boy disappeared with Zabuza.

"damn it" said Kakashi.

"what is it" said both Sakura and Sasuke.

"never mind it" said Naruto.

Then Kakashi said, "we need to get to Tazuna's house and rest and heal…then we will oversee him completing the bridge and finish our mission"

"right" said the team

"sorry I'm such a bother" said Tazuna.

"it's quite all right" said Naruto.

They started to walk off, but Kakashi fainted.

The whole team yelled out for their sensei, but he was dead to the world.


	12. Chapter 12

Hey all, I just wanted to say that everything that happens with Inari is still gonna happen, but I don't feel like typing it because honestly, everyone knows it and I don't wanna waste time on it. Anyways, has anyone noticed I've been updating more often recently.

Ch. 12 The Eye.

"Kakashi-sensei" yelled the team.

Alas, it was to no avail as Kakashi fell, dead to the world.

Naruto was instantly on high alert for any other enemies that might attack in their now jonin-less situation. Sasuke, and even Sakura, were also on high alert.

That's when Naruto looked at them and they all nodded, then Naruto made four shadow clones. They picked up Kakashi, while Tazuna moved to stand in front of the clones holding Kakashi, Sasuke moved to the left of Tazuna , Sakura to the right, and Naruto in front of Tazuna.

"all right brats, let's get to my house on the double" said tazuna.

They all nodded and took off.

As they ran through the center of the little village, the team was left utterly speechless. There were children, orphans most likely, sitting next to huts; their was not a single gleam of happiness in any persons eyes, there were people starved and so malnourished one could see their ribs; their were two boys, no older than Naruto, fighting over a piece of bread down an alley between two huts. They passed by the market and noticed a lack of produce, and meat. This was a dying village. A dying land. All because of one man. Gato.

That leach. That venomous creature that cared more for his 100,000 dollar shoes than he did for the well-being of any person. The trash. The scum. The bane of the existence of these people. Each member of the team, as they raced through the town, made a silent vow to be sure to take Gato's head back to konoha.

The team reached Tazuna's home and followed Tazuna in.

"Father…oh goodness what the heck is going on" said Tsunami.

"this ninja collapsed after a battle, we need to put him in one of the spare bedrooms" said Tazuna.

Tsunami nodded and told the genins to, "lay him on the couch while I prepare his room. Does he have any wounds?" The genin shook their heads, "okay then I guess he just needs to rest" she then disappeared upstairs.

"I wander how long sensei will be out of it" said Sakura.

"I don't know" said Naruto.

"yeah" said Sasuke.

Just then a groan was heard from the couch, the genin looked at their sensei.

"Hey sensei, that lady called, you know, the one from a month ago….said something about being late…whatever that means" said Naruto, then laughed as Kakashi's eyes widened and he tried to sit up.

"that's im….ow…." he layed back down "oh….hey guys" said the one eyed ninja.

Sakura balnched and thought, 'T.M.I. , T.M.I'

Naruto and Sasuke were laughing their asses off, and Kakashi was blushing. Tsunami came back down the stairs to announce that the room was ready. Naruto made four clones who then took Kakashi to his room.

When Naruto came back downstairs he was told that supper was ready, he said, "thank you, but could I take a plate to eat in the room I'll be sleeping in, and can I take the plate for Kakashi-sensei"

"You certainly may" said Tsunami as she prepared and handed two plates of food to the blonde, "here enjoy".

"thank you" said the blonde, disappearing up the stairs.

Naruto brought the food up to Kakashi, but he was already asleep, so Naruto just ate it himself. Now to go and have a nice long talk with kyuubi.

Naruto would be sleeping in the same room with his team, meaning that he would have to meditate with kakashi in the room with him. 'oh well' he thought.

Naruto sat down on his sleeping bag and put himself in the lotus position and began to meditate. He went to his mindscape.

"hey furball…what are you up to" said the blonde, looking at the fox.

"don't call me that you little brat, I am the nine tailed demon fox, the least you could do is call me by my real name you insolent whelp" roared kyuubi.

"geez, what's stuck up your ass today" asked Naruto, "anyways, Kyuu, it's time I put a special alteration to one of the seals that is keeping my true strength at bay"

"do what?" yelled the fox.

"well tell me, how long does it take to break the first seal to unlock 10 percent more of my brute force " said Naruto.

Kyuubi shifted his head, as if calculating, "about ten seconds brat…why?"

"I'm going to be fight Zabuza Momochi, demon of the mist, master of the silent kill, ONE second might be too much time to release some skill" said Naruto, "not to mention what ever abilities his little friend might have."

"true true…but how will you do this" said Kyuubi.

"I am going to alter the structure of these seals and create various relay seals. These seals will be on my arm, but invisible. If I need to alter them further, I can make them visible by thinking about them being visible, but the big bonus is I can release the seal without using hand signs or anything. Any ways, I gotta go, see ya Kyu…wait, what is your real name" asked Naruto.

"Kurama" said Kyuubi.

"ok, I'll see you later…Kurama" said Naruto as he left his mindscape. He got out of his lotus position to sit in a regular crisscross position, he pulled up his shirt to see his seals. Then he got to work…..

Time skip next day.

"Naruto….I always tried to catch up to you, you were always the one I wanted to impress, You were the person that drove me to train harder…and now…when you need me….." said the teenage girl.

'who is that, I can't tell who it is, my vision is too fuzzy'. he thought.

"when you need me, I will help you; because you helped me in my time of need….I will help you because…." the next words he couldn't make out before he heard a large explosion.

Naruto sat up, he was releasing a heavy cold sweat. He looked around and noticed everyone was staring at him.

"You okay there Naruto, you were making some pretty weir noises in you sleep," asked Sakura.

"yeah, I'm fine, just a night mare" said the blonde then he thought, 'what the hell was that dream about'.

"anyways, it's time I talked with you guys about something, go get the bridge builder and bring him in here too" said Kakashi.

Five minutes later, with Tazuna in the room Kakashi spoke, "I, to put it bluntly, believe that Zabuza is still alive"

"what" exclaimed Sasuke, Sakura, and Tazuna.

Sakura said, "but that hunter nin…"

Naruto interrupted her, "the ninja is the master of deception."

"That is correct," started Kakashi "think about. Why did the hunter-nin not help us until the very last minute, why did the hunter-nin use senbon, which are usually used for medical reasons and not to kill, and why did the hunter-nin not destroy the body right then. Think about it. That hunter-nin was really trying to save zabuza…in any case, the way he was, he really was almost dead, so he should be out of it about as long as I will be. In the mean time, we need to get you guys stronger."

"alright" said sakura.

"whatever, I already knew this" said the still sleepy blonde.

"hn" said Sasuke.

Later at the bat cave…I mean open field.

"I'm gonna teach you guys a technique to aid in your everyday ninja lives and for your chakra control…just watch this" as he walked with the crutches up a tree.

He went to turn back to his team, to come face to face with Naruto, who was standing straight with crossed arms, "what's so special about this sensei" asked the blonde.

Needless to say sasuke and sakura's eyes were bulging out of their skulls (lol, green day reference lol) and Kakashi's eyes were pretty wide.

"Well, I guess you can skip this part of the training then" said Kakashi, "but the others should continue with this, mark the tree with a kunai to track how high you go…Naruto, come with me"

Sasuke was thinking, 'dobe, how strong are you really' and sakura was feeling useless until she ran up the tree.

"wow, I'm good at this" said sakura, "come no Sasuke-kun" she said

But sasuke couldn't get it.

"well, it looks like her control is superior to yours sasuke" said Kakashi, "im a clone he left" answered kakas hit at the questioning gaze from sasuke, "but you should continue to run up and down the tree to build up your chakra reserves, ok sakura."

Meanwhile, with Naruto and the real kakashi.

The two had just walked out into another clearing, and after checking to make sure they were well out of hearing range kakashi began, "all right, stop the act"

"what do you mean sensei," questioned the blonde.

"how strong are you, really….what is your untapped strength" asked kakashi.

"I don't know what you're talking about" said Naruto.

"oh please, you can already walk up trees, you can make hundreds of shadow clones, you can do seal work…yeah I watched you messing with those seals yesterday…also….what were you fiddling with…were you messing with the seals that keep kyuubi locked away" said Kakashi.

"how did you…" started Naruto.

"you just told me" kakashi. Interrupted, "now speak"

Naruto sighed, "listen do I really need to tell you."

Kakashi nodded.

"Ok….I'll only tell you as much as I can at the moment. You see, a couple years ago, it was my birthday….which is also the day the village celebrates when Kyuubi was defeated by the fourth hokage….I just wanted to go out to the market to get some food….the villagers saw me and attacked, they were drunk and I ran… I knew I could have fought back a little bit, but then I would only prove their motives true. Anyways, they nearly killed me, left me for dead in a ditch, and at that moment my prisoner pulled me into my mindscape to have a conversation. He has been training me ever since." said Naruto.

"interesting, so about what level are you" asked Kakashi.

"I can't say….cuz I don't really know" said Naruto.

"and the seals" said kakashi.

"funny think about that…initially, Kyuubi, I mean Kurama, made me seal a good half, actually more, of my potential away in the form of these seals" he lifted his shirt to show the extra seals on top of the eight trigrams, "but last night I altered it, and added these" pulled up his sleeve to show five seals on each forearm, "each seal is a faster way to access some of my abilities" said Naruto, "with all the seals as they are now, I am at or slightly above Sasuke's level….I'm not sure about how high I'd be with my full potential" 'maybe mid to upper jonin level at best' added Naruto in his head.

"okay, that answer's a few of my questions" 'goodness Minato-sensei, I wish you were here to witness this, your son is great'.

"what am I gonna do for training sense" the blonde asked.

"you're going to make 40 clones..twenty will work on water walking, and 15 will work on taijutsu and speed, while the last five and yourself will work with me on something" said Kakashi.

"what is that" said Naruto.

Kakashi tossed him a slip of paper. "put some chakra into that"

END CHAPTER

I know it has like no action, sorry. Like it- hate it, review it please.


	13. Chapter 13

Thank you for the reviews everyone. Gonna go ahead and right you guys another chapter.

Chapter 13. The rest of the storm

It was one week later and team seven was waking up to go to the bridge. Well, most of team seven, there was one blonde still snoozing away when everyone was ready to leave.

"should we wake him up" asked Sakura.

"no, let him sleep, I almost killed him yesterday" said Kakashi, to which Sakura blanched.

"what the hell sensei" she said.

"it's just training, I'm gonna train Sasuke the same way soon" said Kakashi.

'hell yeah' thought Sasuke

Sakura slumped her shoulders and thought, 'I feel really left out.'

'maybe now she'll start being more serious, she's improved, but she needs just a little bit more' thought Kakashi as he noticed her disappointed appearance. He then spoke, "anyways, do you two have your gear ready?"

"yes" said Sasuke and Sakura together.

They left out, heading straight to the bridge. Tsunami called out for them to wait. She ran over and handed them some bags, "here, don't forget your lunches" she said.

"thanks" they all said as they each took one and headed for the bridge.

*******************************************later******************************************

Naruto started to come to, he was having such a nice dream and the damn bright as sunlight just had to ruin it. Wait, it was really bright. 'oh shit' he thought as he jumped up. He looked outside to the sun and sure enough, he had really overslept. He ran out of the room to find his team, only to find that they had already left to the bridge. 'damn it' he thought.

"they left about two hours ago, you were still asleep, they didn't want to wake you" said Tsunami.

"damn it" yelled Naruto, "they're gonna do guard duty without me"

He ran out of the door in the blink of an eye. As he was leaving he made sure to leave a Shadow clone henged as a rock on the path to the bridge builders house. He was later jumping from branch to branch heading to the bridge. He noticed that there was all sorts of trees and animals that were dead. They looked like they were killed by someone practicing their swordsmanship, which was clearly lacking he noticed. Just then he got the memories from his clone, it had actually been luckily stepped on by one of the thugs.

"damn, I thought they might try something like this" he instantly spun around and shot off towards the house he had left not five minutes ago.

When he arrived he saw the two thugs pulling Tsunami out, then they were held up by Inari. He flew into action. He did made three clones. Two were henged into shuriken and one did a replacement with Tsunami. When the two thugs turned around, they saw a Naruto clone. "what the" they said.

"hi" said Naruto from behind them.

As they turned around, they swung their swords.

'hm, they are slow, I won't have to do what I planned, this is easy' he quickly thought. In a flash he used his short stature to his advantage as he slipped under their blades, which flew over his head and caused the thugs to over extend and become unbalanced. Naruto pulled out two kunai and dug them into the thugs' necks. Their eyes widened as the pain and surprise they felt could be easily seen in the windows to their dwindling souls. They chocked on their own blood for a few seconds as they collapsed and convulsed a little on the ground. Inari was wide eyed.

"what…it was over so fast" said Inari.

"yup…most fights are decided in the first few seconds." said Naruto.

"but how…" said Inari.

"it's just like this place. The first move that gato did was to kill your father, this pushed your people into weakness. In a sense, his first move almost won the fight" said Naruto.

"almost" questioned Inari, "what do you mean?"

"we're here now" said Naruto, but I gotta go to the bridge.

"wait" said Inari, Naruto paused.

"why would you do all this for me, I've been awful to you" said Inari.

"because my life's goal is to be Hokage. I will lead the village full of my precious friends. I would never stand by as a nation is made to bow to a greedy selfish bastard. Also, think about this for yourself. The life that this nation is living, is not life at all. It's nothing. If you call this life, then I call you ignorant. Don't you remember the happiness before the time gato came. Don't you remember what your father protected and died for" asked Naruto.

"yeah, he died, Gato is too strong" said Inari.

"Gato is only as strong as you let him be. Imagine if more people had opposed gato with your father. That is why you should fight to get that happier time back. If you stand up and fight, the worst you can do is go down fighting as a hero. At least make it hard for gato to rule you" he said.

Inari stood their speechless as Naruto walked away.

***********a little while later at the bridge*****************************************************

Sakura was in a complete and utter panic. Sasuke was fighting that hunter nin in some strange dome thing, and her sensei was being held back from helping sasuke Zabuza. Not to mention the fact that she was the only standing guard of tazuna. What if someone else attacked?

Just then she decided 'I can't take anymore of this' she threw a kunai into the dome of ice mirrors so sasuke could use it, but the hunter-nin caught it by extending out of one of the mirrors. Just then a shuriken flew in from somewhere and hit the ninja in the mask, knocking him down.

A cloud of smoke I appeared and Naruto made a big noisy introduction. He was about to make a shadow clone when Zabuza threw shuriken at him, he pulled out a kunai and knocked each of them away, but one of them had a shadow shuriken behind it, the hunter-nin used a senbon to knock it away. Just then, Sasuke tried to throw a kunai at the 'distracted' hunter-nin, who simply dodged it and said he hadn't forgotten about Sasuke.

At the same time Naruto snuck into the dome of ice mirrors to ask"so, what's the info on this guy's abilities"

"what the, you should've stayed out there and attacked from the outside too, he's super fast inside here." replied Sasuke, getting the hunter-nins attention again.

"idiot, that's a shadow clone outside, why did you think I would use such a big noisy introduction, it was to distract them, and you just ruined it" said Naruto.

"you did well to distract me like that" said the Hunter nin, still standing outside of the dome, "but it won't happen again."

"huh" said Sakura as she saw another Naruto inside the dome, 'oh, so that means..'

The hunter nin threw a senbon into a vital spot to destroy the clone that was outside of the dome of ice mirrors.

'it was a distraction' thought everyone.

'good, I thought he had slipped backwards in abilities there for a minute' thought Kakashi.

"so, why don't we get started" said Zabuza.

"I thought you'd never ask" said Kakashi.

They start their fight just like in the main story line.

"shall we begin" said the hunter-nin.

"sure" said Naruto.

He turned to Sasuke, "so just how fast is this guy" he asked.

"you'll see" said Sasuke.

That's when the hunter-nin started unleashing a flurry of attacks that seemed to come from all directions at one time. 'holy shit this guy is really fucking fast' he thought, 'I gotta release a couple of my relay seals' He thought about two of his seals, he thought release and felt a surge of his abilities. His muscles, which had been previously restricted due to the seal was now restricted about half as much. Also, he had put a seal on some of his mental abilities, including his memory of the brute fist. Now he stood a way better chance.

He made a bunch of shadow clones to jump around. This way, he could get a better read on his opponent's abilities while hiding his true abilities unless absolutely necessary. The shadow clones were being destroyed by a very fast blur. 'he's not as fast as I first thought, if I had one more seal release I could see him perfectly…alright…I'll play your game a little more…release…I'll see if I can help sasuke learn a lesson or two'

"sasuke, can you follow him" he asked.

"kinda…quick, make more clones" said sasuke.

Naruto did as asked, he kept one clone next to him to observe Sasuke, while he watched the clones and hunter-nin as well. To Naruto, after releasing the third seal, the hunter-nin looked to be moving at regular speed, while his clones and Sasuke moved at a much slower speed. After all the clones were destroyed the hunter nin threw a barrage of senbon at them, Naruto noticed one thing, about the seemingly slow projectiles 'none of these are aimed to kill' he let them hit their mark. 'alright, I need to let sasuke develop a little more, if he can get to where he can keep up with this guy, our team will benefit greatly in the long run…but I need to be sure this doesn't get too out of hand' he thought as he nodded at sasuke and made more clones. Just like before, he kept one clone to watch sasuke, or should he say, sasuke's eyes. He knew what was most likely happening, 'he's starting to get his sharingan' he thought.

After this barrage of clones was destroyed, the one he kept to watch sasuke had relayed the message that he saw red in sasuke's eyes. 'okay, that'll be just about it for these little games.'

"all right sasuke, I'll take it from here" he said.

"like hell you will, I can keep up with him now" he said.

"sorry sasuke" he said as he suddenly appeared next to him and kicked him all the way back to Sakura. "help protect tazuna!" he yelled.

"damn you, you bastard" yelled sasuke.

"Now…do you wanna start the real fight hunter-nin" he asked.

"That would be best" said the hunter-nin.

"Well, shall we. The hunter nin then tried to go from mirror to mirror and throw the senbon. However, Naruto was keeping up with him, forcing him to move to the next mirror before he could release the senbon.

'this is not good, he's keeping me on the defensive' thought the hunter nin. "how can you keep up with me all of the sudden, before you couldn't keep up at all"

"one word: deception" said Naruto.

With kakashi

"you know, that blonde is gonna die, he doesn't stand a chance against haku. I've shaped him and his bloodline limit into the ultimate weapon. He is even stronger than me" said Zabuza.

"yeah, that may be so…but my student is very exceptional as well, he is full of surprises. I wouldn't be surprised if he already had a plan to win" said Kakashi.

"humph, I bet the little twerp doesn't really know anything about elemental affiliation" he said.

"actually" said Kakashi

Flashback.

"put your chakra into that" he said.

Naruto caught it, then looked at it then said, "what the hell is this"

"just do it, it'll show your elemental affinity" he said.

Naruto put his chakra into it, what happens next was kinda crazy.

"well, that's interesting" said Kakashi.

flashback end.

"that's impossible" yelled Zabuza.


	14. Chapter 14

I wander how many investors passed up the chance to become a part of google, or face book, or twitter, etc etc etc, hell even wal-mart. I've heard of, and joined something, that might be the next google or face book or twitter. If you're interested, go to: signup .wazzub. info/?lrRef=a87ece88, take out spaces.

Do not take out the a87ece88, that is very important. It is free, and you do not have to give them any bank account info. When the time comes, you give them your mailing address. I created a second e-mail just in case though. Private message me for more details.

I also like i enjoy messing around on funny stuff on there.

Re-uploaded this chapter because I noticed something. Got over 1000 hits in the four or so hours it was posted, but only one review? come on people, how can I make the story better without at least a little input. PLEASE REVIEW, I'M BEGGING YOU!

holy shit did yall see what happened in the last chapter of the manga.? O.o

Anyways…..next chapter.

Chapter 14...Naruto's element.

"that's impossible" yelled Zabuza.

"it's not impossible, just highly unlikely." corrected Kakashi.

'Haku, you better be careful' thought Zabuza.

Flashback.

"well that's interesting" said Kakashi.

"what is it sensei" asked the blonde.

"well, it seems you have a very strong primary affinity for wind, but your strong secondary affinities are all the other one's." said Kakashi, but finished in his head, 'I'm not even going to tell you yet what that last 'elemental' affinity is.'

Flashback end.

Meanwhile with Naruto and haku.

"deception. Yes the very most fundamental tool of a ninja. You have played it well. Shall we start. Ice style: piercing blades of death." said haku.

Naruto felt the air pressure around him shift, telling him to get the fuck out of the way. 'oh shit' he thought as he jumped back. Just then a many spears of ice formed out of thin air right where he was.

'how the hell did he avoid that, I've killed low-level jonin with that move. How strong is this kid?' thought haku.

"I wander, how much your ice can hold up. Wind style: cutting blades jutsu" Naruto took in a deep breath and let it out, hundreds of blades of air came out towards the hunter nin., who jumped to another mirror to avoid it. When the hunter nin got there he saw a giant fireball coming at him.

'what!' he thought. He shifted to the mirror directly to his left. "you have fire as well as wind" asked Haku.

"Yup" replied the blonde. "and they go together so well.."wind style, great gust of fury" a powerful gust of wind came out and hit the fireball increasing it's intensity causing it to actually start melting the ice mirror.

'damn it' thought the hunter nin, 'even though I'm not in that mirror, it will weaken my chances of winning, I need to start going for the kill now.' the hunter-nin stepped out of the ice mirror, "water style, great wave blast." a wave of water came out and hit the fireball, but because of the intense heat, the water was evaporating into steam before it hit the fireball, but once it left the heat of the fireball, the lower temperature inside the ice dome turned it more into mist than steam, meaning it would lay low and not lift up out of the way. Which is exactly what the hunter nin wanted.

"damn it" Naruto said, then he thought, 'wait, I can just use another wind jutsu and..' he had to roll to his left to dodge the senbon that littered the ground where he just was. 'damn, he's trying to kill..' he had to jump again, 'me now..shit, he's not giving me any time to make any hand signs to do my great gust jutsu…let me think….' jumps out of the way of..kunai this time 'he's getting really serious now' the blonde observed.

Standing in a mirror a little ways away, the fake hunter nin thought 'the super-heated fireball and my water worked perfectly to blind him, I won't let him get the chance to make seals to make a wind jutsu to get rid of this mist.' thought haku.

'there,' he said as he threw shuriken this time, 'I will stay useful to Zabuza..even if it have to kill you Naruto.'

This time the hunter nin heard the shuriken he threw, at neck level, dig into flesh. "you put up a great fight, you had great promise, but you were cut down in the.." he heard a poof. 'oh shit' he thought.

"Wind style: great gust jutsu" said Naruto. "heh, you didn't even notice me make a shadow clone in that mist, I didn't even need to use a hand-sign"

"I need to get serious this time" said Haku as he lifted up his sleeve and undid a strap, then those staps fell to the ground with a loud thud. "I will show you what true speed is".

The blonde thought, 'really , I have my own' as he touched his wrists to release the seals there and then bent down to touch his ankle seals to undo that weight, and then he undid the ones on his chest and waist.

"bring it on no-face" yelled Naruto. Just then he made the hand seals, and used much more chakra, "wind style: slicing wind blades jutsu" the blades of wind swiped out at all the mirrors, haku was forced to jump backwards and out of the dome of mirrors. Every mirror was sliced in half and subsequently shattered.

'dammit' thought the hunter-nin 'no matter' he said as he pulled out a bunch of senbon. He jumped to the left as a fireball came from Sasuke's direction. He thought, 'now can you keep up me without my weights' he said as he started towards Sasuke in unbelievable speeds.

"oh shit" thought Naruto as he saw Haku going towards Sasuke. He took off after haku but knew he wouldn't make it in time .'unless….fourth relay seal..break!' he thought in less than the blink of an eye.

Sasuke heard it before he saw it. Naruto was standing in front of him, visibly shaking. "dobe, what's wrong" he asked. Naruto stepped back and fell over, there was a senbon lodged deep in his heart.

"Naruto" yelled both Sasuke and Sakura. (remember, sasuke was kicked over towards sakura).

"He valued your life more than his" said Haku, he still didn't let his guard down, "such a shame"

Sasuke knelt down and held Naruto, "why did you do that dobe?"

"I don't know why, because….." poof.

Haku thought, 'not surprising' and then jumped up out of the way of Naruto as he appeared in front of him, slicing with a kunai. 'he had enough time to get here, make a shadow clone, and hide…all without me noticing him…"what the hell is this kid" thought haku to himself aloud.

"a nightmare" whispered Naruto from behind him.

Haku's eyes widened and he jumped forward doing a front hand spring so that his feet would hopefully catch Naruto in the chin.

"too slow" said Naruto from in front of him as Naruto smashed his fist into haku's face, sending him rolling yards away. 'he hit's….harder than zabuza-sama' thought haku.

'owwwww my fucking fist, what the fuck is the fucking mask made out of….fuck!' Naruto thought, 'I say fuck too much.'

'no you don't' said Kyuubi

'shut the fuck up' said Naruto.

'i take back my previous statement' kyuubi sweat dropped.

'oh fuck you' said thought the blonde to the fox.

'exactly' the fox sweatdropped.

Haku stood up and Naruto launched forward, ready to plant a kunai in haku's forehead, but when the mask fell off and he actually SAW that it was haku, he stopped.

"why do you hesitate Naruto, kill me. I am no longer of use to Zabuza-sama, I am tool a that has lost it's purpose, a hammer with a broken handle. You killing me would be a coup de grace," said Haku.

"but you...you're my friend" said Naruto.

Flashback

Naruto collapsed on the ground, panting, "damn that Kakashi, gives me these scrolls but just fucking leaves and says, 'use shadow clones', god this fucking tired me out" he then proceeded to pass out.

He awoke to someone with their fingers on his neck, he shot up and grabbed the person and put a kunai to their throat, he then came to his senses and asked, "what were you doing"

"you were really bruised up, I just wanted to see if you were still alive, so I was checking your pulse" said the girl.

Hesitantly the blonde released the young beauty.

"why are you out here, exhausting yourself." asked the girl.

"I'm on a mission, but more importantly why is a pretty girl like you out here" said the blonde.

"oh the life of a ninja must be so hard, and I'm just getting herbs to heal my master, he's gotten terribly sick" said the girl.

"ehh, I manage…it's actually quite exhilarating when you think about it" said the blonde.

"why did you choose to be a ninja" asked the girl.

"so that I can gain the respect of the village, to become hokage, and protect all the ones that are precious to me" he said thinking of all his friends, and especially Hinata.

"I see, I have a similar goal in life," said the girl.

"really" asked the bonde.

"yeah, I want to help my master achieve his goals. Whatever they may be. He saved me from my loneliness" said the girl.

"really, that's exactly what my friends did for me" said the blonde, "if it weren't for them, I don't know where I would be."

"indeed, I wander…would you like to be my friend" asked Haku.

"sure you bet, I promise that when I'm hokage you can come and live in the leaf village, of course you'd be able to, you're just a civilian anywas." laughed the blonde.

The girl started laughing to, although she felt uneasy, "well I better get back to my master, by the way…I'm a boy"

'What! She was almost as cute as Hina-hime' he thought.

Flashback end

"yes, we are friends Naruto. But my life has no meaning any more, please, let my death be at the hands of one of my friends." said Haku.

"but…but…why…that's so messed up" said the blonde.

On the other side of the bridge zabuza was being held down by half a dozen dog summons. Kakashi was about to unleash his chidori, but they were interrupted by gato a loud tapping on the ground.

They all, including Naruto and haku, looked over to see gato with an army of thugs behind him.

"well well well, it seems like you really were too costly, I hired these goons, and this other stronger ninja for half the cost of you" said gato.

"oh shit" said kakashi and Naruto.

The man to gato's right was in a black coat with red clouds. He looked at the leaf ninja, "so how is the leaf" and looked at Sasuke, "and you brother?"

End chapter.

This is the part where pein talked about them being mercenaries to get money. Remember, it was the first phase of the Akatsuki's plan.

Anyways, like it ,love it, REVIEWWWWWWW!


	15. rewrote chapter 1

Just a quick note, sorry. I rewrote chapter one. Please go back and read it if you have time. I think I made it a LOT better. Please review and tell me what you think.

Peace out,

MRPEEPLES


	16. Battle of the Bridge

So, yeah, here is the new chapter. Read and Review please.

Ch. 15. Battle of the Bridge.

'Oh shit' thought Naruto, 'we're dead now.'

Sasuke was about to break it towards Itachi but Naruto caught his arm.

"He'll eat you alive, don't be hasty stupid" said Naruto.

Sasuke forcefully removed his hand, "I have to kill him, I have to"

"You will, just not now, not yet. You aren't strong enough yet, you need more time" said Naruto.

"Whatever" Said Sasuke as they all formed around Tazuna to protect him.

Zabuza spoke, "Well Kakashi, I guess this means we're not enemies anymore, as you can see I am no longer employed by Gato". Haku then appeared next to Zabuza.

"I agree" said Kakashi, "so, it appears you and I are nearly out of chakra, and so is Haku. Naruto and Sasuke look a little tired and we're facing a fresh S-ranked criminal. We're fucked."

"I like the way you put it" said Zabuza.

Kakashi quickly took out enough soldier pills and gave one each to Zabuza, Haku, Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura. Then took one himself.

Kakashi then spoke to Itachi, "to answer you question, the leaf is just fine. And I'm sure your brother is doing fine, so why don't you run along Itachi"

"I'm afraid I can't do that Kakashi-san, I must fulfill this mission for the money" said Itachi.

"Listen guys, this is gonna sound crazy but do NOT, and I mean DO NOT look Itachi in the eyes, it'll be all over if you do". Said Kakashi.

The genin nodded.

"Shall we begin" said Itachi.

A thug coughed and then Zabuza, Kakashi, and Itachi all disappeaered. A thick mist spread and the genin, who were now joined by Haku, relaxed knowing that the mist was not intended to be used to kill them. The sounds of an intense battle could be heard, and then Kakshi came into sight, skidding on the ground to a stop in front of them.

"Kakashi-sensei!," yelled Sakura as she tried to run to him.

"No" yelled Naruto as he held her from going to his sidie, "that's not Kakashi-sense" said Naruto.

"What" she turned and saw Kakashi stand up and turn into Itachi.

"This is just a earth clone, but It should be more than enough to handle you" said Itachi.

Sasuke screamed "I'M GONNA KILL YOU" and ran at Itachi.

He swung but Itachi easily caught his hand and then held Sasuke up by his collar and brutal slugged him in the face. Then kneed him in the stomach and then elbowed him in the back of the neck. "Pathetic, you are being a disgrace to the Uchiha name" said Itachi dropping Sasuke's unconscious frame to the ground.

He was about to punch him again when his fist was caught by a hand. He noticed he was now looking into the face of a blonde haired kid. "Naruto-kun, you really shouldn't look me in the eyes" he said as he activated his Mangekyo sharingan and said, "Tsukuyomi". Naruto appeared in a new realm of time and existence. The skies were red and he was tied to a cross. Itachi appeared with a katana in his hand a began to torture him. He would slide the blade into his stomach, twist it, then heat the blade. After what seemed like hours Itachi said, "you're holding up well, better than most". Just then Itachi…turned into a bunch of crows that all shoved themselves down his throat. He then woke back up. It had all happened in the blink of an eye.

Naruto was still there holding Itachi's fist in his hands. He had one thought, 'why did he let me go, why did he not kill me'.

Then Naruto thought, 'fifth and sixth relay seals, release'. A surge of power went through him as he tightened his grip on Itachi's fist, pulled him in and punched him as hard as he could. Itachi flew away and rolled on the ground. The mist parted slightly to reveal Itachi standing while wiping the blood from his mouth. "It seems you are the stronger of your group, huh Naruto-kun?"

"Maybe, maybe not" said Naruto.

He put his hands together in the familiar sign and yelled, "Multi-shadow clone jutsu" and 500 Naruto's appeared.

"Those won't work on me Naruto" said Itachi.

That's when all the clones rushed him.

Itachi was cutting through them like they were nothing. Then one clone held onto Itachi's hand.

"What" said Itachi.

"Boom" said the clone as it exploded.

Itachi was thrown into the air. Naruto jumped high, he was able to because he wasn't using his seals or weights, and laid a solid Brute fist strike to the base of the spine of Itachi. Naruto pulled out a kunai and was about to cut Itachi's throat before the missing-nin reached back and grabbed Naruto by the back of the neck, pulled him in while bringing his fist up and punched Naruto in the face. Then he grabbed Naruto by the shoulders and pulled Naruto's face to his knees. Naruto had one thought, 'ow' as he flew back to, and crashed into, the Earth. Itachi landed gracefully.

'Damn he's strong as hell' said Naruto in his mind.

'He's and Uchiha, and an elite Uchiha at that. This guy is serious brat, be careful.' Said the Kyuubi in Naruto's mind.

'Will do, thanks Kyu' said Naruto.

"Well Naruto-kun, how about we…" he moved his head to the side as Sasuke's fist came whizzing by his fact. Itachi brought his elbow back roughly, catching Sasuke in midair. Sasuke was visibly shaken as spit and blood left his mouth. Itachi squinted his eyes in a hateful glare, "pathetic". He turned around and grabbed Sasuke by collar again, "Now I'll put you in Tsuku.." Itachi was punched in the back of the head by Naruto. Sending Itachi to the ground, dropping Sasuke.

"Didn't they tell you not to turn your back to an opponent" said Naruto.

Sasuke stood next to Naruto, holding his aching stomach. "Dobe, you wanna team up" asked Sasuke.

"Nah-shit genius" Said Naruto.

Sasuke rolled his eyes.

"Formation A?" said Naruto.

Sasuke just nodded. Sasuke ran at Itachi and engage him in taijutsu, but lasted five seconds. Which was enough because as Itachi was just about to put Sasuke into Tsukuyomi he found himself staring into air. He felt a sharp pain in his stomach and looked down to see Naruto with his fist through his stomach. "I see, so you did a substitution with Sasuke, and since you're so much shorter I missed you eyes and you had your fist pulled back before you made the swap…." He began to crumple "good team work" said Itachi.

Kakashi had just missed Itachi with a Chidori strike. But it was just a distraction for Zabuza to try to cleave off Itachi's head. Key word being try. "You two are actually keeping up" said Itachi.

Kakshi went through hand signs while Zabuza disappeared into the mist again, "Water Style: Water Hurricane" said Kakashi. A giant wave of water and wind went towards Itachi. Itachi jumped back in order to put some distance, but he had made a mistake. He backed right into the edge of Zabuza's sword range as the Demon of the mist was bringing down his blade. Itachi bent forward onto his hands and did a hand spring backwards to kick Zabuza in the chin, sending him flying in the opposite direction. However, that Zabuza disappeared revealing it to be a water clone. 'Shit' thought Itachi as he just barely had time to dodge a downward slash from Zabuza. Itachi did hand signs quickly and sent a Fireball at Kakashi, who dodged to the left. He dodged, right into an explosive not. His eyes widened as it set off and flung him back to where his students were. "Formation Delta-3 Omega"

The students nodded, knowing that only their real sensei would know the jargon of their team formations.

Naruto made enough clones so that when they henged they would all look the same as Him, Haku, Sasuke, Sakura, and Tazuna. Then the group leapt back to the ground before the bridge. Sasuke laid some explosive notes on the ground around them as Naruto did some hand signs and a giant dome of earth surrounded them and then disappeared back underground.

Kakashi jumped back into the fray to try to take advantage of Itachi's turned back only for Itachi to turn into a log when Kakashi buried a kunai in the back of his head. "Behind you" said Itachi. Kakashi turned into the katana that Itachi was holding. "Such a pity" said Itachi. But then Kakashi erupted into smoke. "Kage Bunshin?" said Itachi.

Just then Zabuza appeared mid down-stroke right beside Itachi. This caused Itachi to dodge backwards. While in the air Itachi heard the sounds of birds chirping and turned to see Kakashi preparing to ram the Chidori into his back and chest when he neared. Itachi opened his mangeko eyes wider and a black shell appeared between him and Kakashi, causing Kakshi to be pushed back.

Itachi was now standing right between the two Jonin. Kakashi and Zabuza were not fairing well. They looked bloody and bruised, but Itachi was panting as well. These two elite jonin were still able to push him, but he was still far in the favor. Just then he got his memories from the clone back and said, "I guess my true mission is done, fairwell, for now". He collapsed and turned into another, dead, man.

Zabuza and Kakashi walked over and Kakshi said, "so it wasn't really him all along, just a dead body with his abilities and under his control?"

"I guess, I don't really know for sure" said Zabuza.

The two made it over to the underground hiding spot of the genin and Haku.

One of the explosive notes unhenged revealing it to be a Naruto clone. He asked, "is Itachi gone or something"

"Thankfully yes" said Kakashi.

The clone nodded and dispelled itself, sending the memories back to the real Naruto underground.

The two jonin made there way back over to Naruto and the others.

"Well I guess that is enough for today" said Kakashi.

"Did you forget about me" said Gato. "That sissy Uchiha may have left, but you're all dog tired and my little army here is just itching to let out some frustrations…but they are costly too, so if you wouldn't mind could you take out about half of them with you…okay thanks" said Gato.

"Well, I'm out of soldier pills" said Kakashi.

"I got plenty left" said Naruto as he made over two hundred clones. Kakashi stood up and made 20 clones and Zabuza prepared his giant blade while Haku pulled out senbon and Sasuke pulled out a kunai and Sakura pulled out a kunai but stayed next to Tazuna. Zabuza left first as he dashed into the crowd and gutted Gato. Sending him flying over the bridge side into the water below. Zabuza then ran back to his team, killing a few men on his way back.

"Sorry, I just couldn't stand him, I had to kill him quickly" sais Zabuza.

"It's quite alright" said Kakashi.

"So I guess we're do…" Sakura was interrupted.

"Hey, they killed the boss. Who's gonna pay us now? I know, let's go plunder that little village over there. We'll kill the men and kids, take the money and food…and the women". Right when he finished his sentence he looked down to see a Kunai coming out of his chest, he looked forward to see the still oustretched hands of Naruto. "That was fast" said the thug as he collapsed to the ground. Naruto pulled out two more kunai, and then a bolt landed in between the two groups. They all turned and saw all the towns people, led by Inari.

Inari said, "You can try, but we're not gonna let you do anything you slimeballs"

All the thugs turned tail and ran. Fighting over each other to get to the boat.

"NOW we're done with them" said Kakashi.

"Finally, time to go back into hiding" said Zabuza, "Kakashi, I have a favor to ask of you"

"What is it" asked Kakashi.

"I want you to take Haku back to Konoha with you." Said Zabuza.

"What?" yelled Haku.

"You can get better training and be safer there. I would go with you, but I don't think that Konoha would let me in with me being a missing nin and all." Said Zabuza.

"Actually, we may be able to work out something with the Hokage…especially if you have any information on the Mizukage" said Kakashi.

"Hey, we can talk about this later, I'm hungry let's go back to Tazuna's house and have supper" Yelled Naruto.

Everyone was all too happy to nod their heads.

The bridge was now complete and the group was about to leave. Kakashi and the group had convinced Zabuza to join them in going home to Konoha.

"You can cry now" said Naruto.

"No, you can if you want to" said Inari with tears in his eyes.

"We'll be sure to come back and visit you okay?" said Naruto tears in his eyes as well.

Sakura rolled her eyes and grabbed Naruto by the ear and drug him away as their group left.

"so what will you call the bridge" asked Tsunami.

"It is our bridge to better times…I think we should call it the Great Naruto Bridge" said Tazuna.

"Sounds magnificent to me" said Tsunami.

The group was walking down the road to Konoha.

"Haku-chan, how do you take care of your hair so well" said Sakura as Haku blushed.

"You know Haku is actually a boy" said Naruto.

"What.! Really?" said Sakura as Haku's blush deepened.

"What are you talking about brat, Haku is a girl" said Zabuza.

Then Naruto told of the encounter with Haku as Haku's face grew redder and redder.

Naruto just barely dodged the giant sword of Zabuza. "She' like a daughter to me, and you were having impure thoughts weren't you?"

"No I swear it, I have a girlfriend" said Naruto.

"She's your girlfriend!" exclaimed Zabuza as he started chasing Naruto.

"NO! That's not what I meant….oh Kami help me" said Naruto as he ran and the rest of the group chuckled at his expense.

In a dark cave there stood nine figures. Seven were holograms.

The tall blue ban turned to the awakening Itachi, "So How was the Jinchuriki?" asked Kisame.

"He is developing quite well…faster than most. Even faster than my brother. He may be a threat, should we take him now?" asked Itachi.

A figure with purple, ringed, eyes turned to Itachi. "No, he is still no bother. This was simply to see his development, nothing more. We are still in phase one of our plan for world domination. Just be sure to keep it in mind that the Jinchuriki's can be quite strong".

"Yes Leader-sama" said the group.


	17. Returning to Konoha

**Okay guys and girls here is another chapter. Please read and review. **

It had been a rather pleasant trip back to Konoha. Naruto and the kids talked animatedly while Kakashi read his book and Zabuza sharpened his sword, glaring at Naruto for the first thirty minutes before shaking his head and starting up a conversation with the only other jonin so they could share in each other's exploits over the years.

About half-way to konoha the group stopped in order to rest and have lunch. Zabuza sat down next to Naruto. Zabuza still staring straight ahead, asked Naruto, "so where'd you learn to fight like that, I know it wasn't from Kakashi"

'**Don't tell him brat' said the Kyuubi.**

'Nah shit fur-ball'. "I just trained with weighted seals and watched the chuunin and jonin spar at times…I don't know, it just kinda came naturally," Said the blonde as he scratched the back of his neck. 'Biggest lie ever' thought Naruto.

"Whatever you say kid" said Zabuza.

Just then it seemed like a light-bulb turned on in Sakura's head. She turned to Naruto and said, "wait a second, didn't you say earlier that you have a girlfriend?"

Naruto gulped his food down and started sweating. 'Well, me and Hinata-chan are really close…but we haven't really made anything official yet'. "I was just trying to get Zabuza to stop chasing me" said Naruto.

Apparently that worked for Sakura as she nodded and turned back to her food.

'phew, that was a close one' thought the blonde.

Naruto felt someone sit down next to him and turned to see Haku. "Hey Haku, how are you?"

"I'm well, thank you Naruto-kun…say can I ask you a favor" she asked.

"Yeah sure, what do you need" asked Naruto.

"I could really use some help getting to know the village. If your Hokage approves of us becoming members of the village would you please give me a little tour," asked the ice-user.

"You bet, I'll even introduce you to Hinata-chan" he said.

'Hinata…chan….damn it' she thought with a sad look, 'I still won't give up' "I can't wait to meet her" she said.

"Yeah, I bet you'll get along with her a whole lot. She's very kind and gentle, just like you are Haku-chan" said the blonde.

She smiled and said, "It'll be a lot of fun"

Later that day.

The group of Ninja entered the gates. Kakashi walked over and signed them in with the guards before coming back to the group and saying, "all right everyone, usually I would just go and give the mission report myself, but seeing as we have two new additions to our group we need to take everyone so their input can be heard."

The group nodded. The blonde said, "Gramps better let them stay, I'll be pissed at him if he doesn't."

Kakashi smiled, "maybe he will Naruto, maybe he will."

The group had just entered the hokage's office.

"Oh Kakashi-san, I see you returned from your mission to the wave. What brings these other two ninja," asked the third hokage.

The group of ninja went on to recount the events in the wave. When everyone was done there was a pause.

"Do you understand the possible political implications for taking in a missing-nin such as the Demon of the Mist?" said the Hokage.

Silence.

"What if by giving these two asylum we start a war with the mist…what would you have me do" said the Hokage.

Silence. Naruto turned his head to the ground, as well as Haku, Sasuke and Sakura.

"Luckily for you" every single downed head shot up, "the previous Mizukage stepped down due to political upheaval. Apparently, there were many who were sympathetic to your cause Zabuza-san. Did you know they removed you from the bingo-book and took away your missing-nin status." Said the Hokage.

Zabuza's and Haku's eyes widened.

"So that leaves you with the decision. Would you like to go home to the mist village, or stay here in the leaf" asked the Hokage.

"We will stay here" said Zabuza. Haku nodded.

"Okay, I will be letting Zabuza join temporarily as a special jonin until he can meet the village's standards for the admittance of new jonin level shinobi. Haku I will place on a genin team that recently had a member be diagnosed with a condition that left her unable to continue life as a shinobi." Said the Hokage.

Zabuza and Haku bowed and said in unison, "thank you Hokage-sama."

He waved his hand and said, "that is all, you are all dismissed"

"If I may have a word with you Hokage-sama" said Kakashi.

"You may, Kakashi-san please stay, the rest are dismissed" he said. The rest of the group left

"Now what is it you need Kakashi" asked the Hokage.

"It is about my team. First off, it appears that Sasuke has activated, at least partially, his Sharingan." Said Kakashi.

"Well that is good. I would like for you to train him in the use of the Sharingan" said the HOkage.

Kakashi nodded, "Also, it appears Naruto is quite the Ninja. He has practiced deception and carried it out to a 'T'"

"Whatever do you mean" asked the Hokage.

"He seems to have been trained by his prisoner some" said Kakashi.

"I know" said the Hokage.

Kakashi's eyes widened, "What…."

"I can see many things Kakashi, like how you henge to buy the Icha Icha paradise books. By the way, have you seen the last one, it's really a master piece," said the Hokage.

"Yeah, I'm half-way through it now," said Kakashi. "Anyways, do you have any idea how strong Naruto might be."

"That I am not sure of" said the Hokage as he took out a pipe and lit it up. "Kakashi-san, do you think Minato-san would be proud of his son. Do you think he would approve of how his son has been treated," asked the Hokage.

"He would be beyond proud of his son. To think at the moment he could be stronger than Minato was at his age. However, I can't say he'd approve of how the village has treated the kid" said Kakashi bowing his head to the ground in shame. The civilian coundil had demanded the 'Kyuubi' be killed. They had had a hard fight just to get Naruto to be able to live. 'Naruto has had such a hard life'. The Civilian council had in effect tied the hands of the Hokage and made it to where no clan or ninja could adopt Nartuo. If they hadn't, Kakshi would've adopted Naruto himself. The civilians' rule was a concession for the Hokage's decree that forbade anyone from talking about the Kyuubi.

"I know how you feel Kakashi" said the Hokage.

"If it weren't for that damn council, those bastards have no right in interfering with the business of shinobi" said Kakashi.

"That is very true," said the Hokage "but at the time Naruto was just a baby and wasn't a shinobi. It was all I could do to keep them from having him executed and to put that law into place."

"I know, it's just that sometimes that council does more harm than good. Why can't they see that Naruto himself is not the Kyuubi, that he is the prison that keeps the prisoner jailed. If it weren't for Naruto we'd all be killed by the Fox" said Kakashi.

"It's fear Kakashi. Fear is one of the greatest downfalls of man. Man fears what he does not understand, and that fear brings out hatred. They are scared for their lives because they don't understand him or his situation. They just see a Fox sealed in him and think that if they kill him they will kill the Fox, which is entirely untrue. It will make the fox free, only to return in 100 years," said the Hokage.

Silence.

"How strong do you estimate him to b Kakashi" the Sarutobi asked.

"I honestly have no idea, but he's defnietely stronger than Sasuke is," said Kakashi.

"I see" said the Hokage.

A good ways across the village Naruto, Sakura, Haku, and Sasuke were all taking a nice stroll around the village when both Naruto and Sasuke sneezed.

"I didn't do it" shouted Naruto as the others chuckled.

"So where are we going now. We've been to the Ramen stand, we've been to the ninja supply store, where else do you guys wanna show me?" asked Haku.

"Well, I was thinking of taking you to see Hinata-chan, that is, if she's home," said Naruto.

"Aww, Naruto misses his little girlfriend so much" taunted Sakura.

"Hey I told you that we are just friends, well best friends to be more accurate" said the Blonde.

"Surrrrrrrre…whatever you say" said Sakura.

"I can't wait, I hope she's as nice as you say she is" said Haku.

"She's so nice you'd think she couldn't harm a butterfly" said Sasuke.

"You'd think?" said Haku.

"She can kick ass" said Sasuke.

"Yup, he learned that the hard way" said Naruto.

"Yeah I did" said Sasuke remembering the time she nearly beat him in their little tournament. She had still thoroughly whipped him, he just got away with the win.

They continued to chat about small things until they reached the Hyuuga household.

Naruto stepped up to the door and knocked on it.

A few moments later and a guy not much older than Naruto opened the door. He glared at Naruto and said, "What do you want, failure."

"To see Hinata-chan, we want to introduce her to a new friend of ours" said Naruto.

"Ah I see, a failure should always hang out with failures…except maybe the Uchiha," said the Hyuuga boy.

"Did you know the first Hokage was considered a failure in his early child-hood, and later he became known as quite possibly the greatest ninja to ever live, only being rivaled by Uchiha Madara and possibly the fourth Hokage. Also, Jaraiya of the Sannin was a failure as a child, and he's one of the strongest ninja in the world at the moment" said Naruto.

"Hmph, whatever" said the Hyuuga.

"Neji, what are you doing" asked an older voice as Hiashi appeared in the doorway behind Neji.

"Just answering the door Hiashi-sama" said Neji.

"Okay, well, would you please go tell Hinata that she has company."

Neji nodded and turned to leave, sending one last glare back at the group of younger genin.

"My apologies for my nephew's most rude behavior" said Hiashi.

"None taken" said Naruto, "I know that not all of the Hyuuga are that arrogant" said Naruto.

This made a frown cross Hiashi's face as he knew that most of the Hyuugas, himself included, were overly arrogant and that it proved to be one of their worst faults.

A minute or two later Hinata appeared in the doorway. "Hey Naruto-kun, hey everyone, may I leave with them father" she asked.

Hiashi simply nodded. Hinata went to leave. Naruto spoke, "Hey Hiashi-sama, can I ask you a question" asked Naruto.

"That you may" said the Hyuuga leader.

"in private" he said turning to the group. They nodded and walked down the street a little ways, each wandering what naruto would need to talk to Hiashi about.

"What is it that you need Naruto-san" asked Hiashi.

"I was wandering. You see, a few months ago, when you had chased me around your garden with the family sword" said Naruto.

"yes" said Hiashi.

"Before that you said, 'you'd like to have kids from a Namikaze one day' what did you mean, I'm an Uzumaki, not a Namikaze" said the blonde.

'I slipped up back then didn't I' Hiashi thought, "You just look a lot like Minato from when we were boys. Him and I were really good friends. As were my wife and his love interest. Who knows Naruto, maybe you are a Namikaze. A secret heir to the Namikaze and Uzumaki clans."

"Yeah, like that would ever happen. Sounds like a fairy tale to me" said Naruto.

"Indeed it does" said Hiashi smiling.

Naruto thought he was smiling at the ridiculousness of the 'fairytale' but really Hiashi was smiling at just how wrong Naruto was.

"I believe your group of friends are growing impatient" said Hiashi.

"Right, I'll see you later Hiashi-sama" said Naruto as he bowed.

'Well at least he's trying to be formal. No doubt it's for Hinata's sake…yes I could really enjoy having grandchildren that have Namikaze blood in them. Not only would it make my clan stronger, but it would also strengthen our ties to the village, once they find out about his heritage they'll probably love him. The elders will be a problem though. A problem I need to address' said Hiashi.

Naruto made his way back to his group of friends. "So…Hinata, we wanted to introduce you to a new friend and comrade of ours. HInata-hime, this is Haku-chan, Haku-chan this is Hinata-hime" said Naruto.

The two girls shook each other's hands and said, "It's a pleasure to meet you."

"So, what do you guys wanna do now" asked Sakura.

"I don't know" said Naruto as he put both hands at the back of his neck. This exposed his forearms showing six of his ten relay seals. He quickly covered it up but it was too late.

"Naruto, what were those seals" asked Sasuke.

"What are you talking about Sasuke, I don't have any ink on me" said Naruto.

Naruto was facing Sasuke when Sakura, out of nowhere, pulled up one of his sleeves, revealing the three seals on each arm.

"You mean these" asked Sakura.

'Dammit! The one good part about these seals is that usually they're invisible. However, once I use them they become visible until enough of my chakra has entered them to lock them again. I'm just glad not all ten got opened. I only had enough time to open six out of my ten. Wow, I wander how much stronger I would've been. The other negative aspect of the relay seals is that because it is a short-cut to all that chakra and experience, it is very tiresome. If you try to fit a ocean of water through a 1 inch diameter pipe in a small amount of time that pipe is gonna fatigue and possibly break. That's the same as my strength. The relay seals are smaller and more convenient to use, but take a higher toll on my body. That is why I slept the entire first of the two weeks we remained in wave' thought the Blonde.

Then Naruto spoke, "Ummm, these are just some chakra suppressing seals. Remember Kakashi-sensei said I have a whole shit-load of chakra" the group nodded.

"Well, that really sucks for Chakra control. I mean it's harder to control the flow of a raging river than it is to control the flow of a sink of water right? So I use these seals to surpress some of my chakra so I can control it better" said Naruto.

"oh okay, so it just makes it to where you can control your chakra better, nothing too fancy" said Sakura.

'That's literally exactly what I just said' thought Naruto then said, "yeah that's pretty much it"

"Hn. Well I'm gonna go home and go to sleep" said Sasuke, "I'm tired as hell." Then Sasuke added in his head, 'How strong are you really Naruto.'

"Hinata-chan, do you want to go train some with me at training ground seven" asked Naruto.

"Sure Naruto-kun" said Hinata.

"I'm gotta go tell Ino about our mission" said Sakura.

Naruto rolled his eyes, "gossip-girl."

"Hey, I was gonna train with her too" said Sakura.

"Sureeee" said Naruto, getting a giggle from Haku and HInata.

"Whatever" said Sakura as she walked off.

Haku asked, "so do you think I could join you two in your training".

Hinata and Naruto looked at each other and nodded. Naruto said, "sure".

Haku nodded and said "thank you"

The three left and went to training ground seven. Once there Naruto said, "I got an idea."

He made several clones. One clone each for Hinata, Haku and for himself. "How about we all train in our taijutsu a little bit?" The two girls nodded.

Naruto had made these clones with an extra seal painted on them. This seal allowed for him to addd a little more chakra to the clones to make them more resistant to attacks. He and the clone he was fighting released the first seal main seal (not the first relay seal), accessing small amounts of their brute fist. Then Naruto upped his weight in the resistance band while the clone didn't, putting Naruto at a handicap. Naruto felt that this would cause him to adapt more to the weights. After an hour of taijutsu sparring Naruto let his clones go. He received the memories of each one. "Hinata, you're very fast and agile, as are you Haku. The only thing is that both your strikes need to be harder and a little more aggressive. Me, hmmm, I need to be a little more agile." He said then thought, 'I need to train some time at my full power so as to still be used to my body when it is at full strength.'

The girls nodded and Haku said, "Well it's getting late, I'd better go find Zabuza-sama. It was fun training with you. We should do it more often." The she blushed at what she said, 'do it…not like that Haku' haku thought to herself.

Hinata and Naruto nodded and waved goodbye to her.

"She's really nice" said Hinata.

"I know," said Naruto "so do you wanna go get some food? My treat. My treat, anywhere you want to go."

"Anywhere" she asked.

He gulped and nodded thinking, 'gama is about to get real thin.'

She said, "I'm in the mood for some more of that heavenly Ramen from Ichiraku."

He looked at her like he was gonna kiss her, "you're amazing Hinata-chan".

She blushed, 'wow, used to I would've fainted at that compliment.'

The two made their way to the ramen stand.

"Naruto-kun, Hinata-chan! It's nice to see you two" said Teuchi.

"It's nice to see you too" said Naruto.

"How have you been Teuchi-san" asked Hinata.

"I've been well, so what'll it be you two lovebirds" asked Tecuhi.

The two blushed really deeply before Naruto stuttered, "w-w-w-we're not dating yet, w-w-w-we're just best friends."

Hinata realized what he said and fainted, her head plopping down on the counter.

"What the hell, she hasn't fainted like that in forever" said Naruto.

"Hey Naruto" said Teuchi.

"yes old man" he replied.

"You said that you and her aren't dating…yet" said Teuchi, teasing Naruto.

Naruto shot his hands to his mouth. Then he removed them and said, "I didn't…" then he just looked at Teuchi with a pleading look that said, 'please don't taunt me, I'm already confused enough'.

Teuchi only nodded. They woke Hinata, who had forgotten what Naruto had said because of her fainting, and the two pre-teens ordered their Ramen.

After they ate their fill, which for Naruto was 15 bowls, they got up, Naruto left the sizeable amount of cash on the counter, and they left.

Naruto walked Hinata back to her home.

Once at the door Hinata turned around and hugged Naruto.

He was taken by surprise at first but then he hugged her back.

"You're my best friend Naruto-kun" she said then added in her head 'I wish I could tell you that I love you, but it's just not the right time…will it ever be the right time.'

"You're my best friend too Hina-hime. I don't know where I'd be without you" he said then added in his head, 'you're my world my sweet. I love you, if only I could tell you. But I, an orphan, am not worth of the love and affection of a girl as sweet, caring, and strong like you'

The door opened to reveal Neji. The boy said, "Aww, what sorrowful sight of losers' love".

"Neji!" scolded Hiashi appearing behind him.

Naruto glared at Neji, 'what is this guys' problem.' He pulled HInata closer to him.

Neji just went, "hmph" and disappeaered. Hiashi shook his head, 'what will I do with him. Brother I'm so sorry.'

Hiashi turned to the two genin who were still holding each other as if they were in a cheesy romance movie. Hiashi cleared his throat, "I believe it is time for you to go to bed Hinata…thank you for walking my daughter home" said Hiashi.

Hinata said, "Yes father" as she bowed and ran in the door, she turned back and waved at Naruto, who in turn waved back.

Naruto bowed and said, "you are most welcome lord Hiashi"

With that the blonde turned and left. Hiashi stood there, a small smile spread on his usually ice cold face. 'Minato, you would be so proud.'

Back at his apartment Naruto made a shadow clone and got in bed. He instantly fell asleep.

About one o'clock in the morning Naruto was startled awake by his clone being destroyed. He sat up quickly prepared to fight. The lights were on and he had a clear view of his 'attacker'.

"But….you're supposed to be dead" muttered Naruto in disbelief.

There, standing in his little apartment, was the Fourth Hokage himself.


	18. Dream and Red Death

**Okay, so here is another chapter. I know what you're saying, three chapters in four days? Are you crazy mrpeeples? No I'm not I just hate cliffhangers too. Plus I have some time to make up. **

**Does anyone else here watch "A Game of Thrones" or "True Blood" or "The Walking Dead" yeah, those are some pretty good shows. Game of Thrones is probably my favorite though. **

**Anyways, yeah, here's the next chapter.**

"But…you're supposed to be dead," stuttered Naruto.

There, standing in his small apartment, was the fourth Hokage himself.

Silence.

"Can you s-s-s-speask," asked the blonde, cowering behind his blanket.

The blonde haired man smiled, "you're so much…" he paused.

"What," asked the blonde genin.

The man shook his head and said, "that is for another time Naruto…so how old are you now?"

"I'm tw-w-w-welve" said Naruto.

"My my you've grown so fast. I can't believe it" said the Hokage.

"What's so hard to believe…." Then Naruto got angry. Naruto jumped up, standing on his bed and pointed an accusing finger at the Fourth, "you sealed the Nine-tails inside me."

"Correct."

"But…why me" said Naruto.

"That is also for another time" said the fourth Hokage.

"So why are you here" asked the blonde kid.

"To discuss some things with you" said the fourth.

"Well….out with it" said Naruto.

"How have the villagers treated you" asked the blonde Hokage.

"…" Naruto's head fell. Tears started to leak down his whisker marked cheeks.

He looked up, his mask disappearing and his liquid soul pouring out of his eyes only to drip off the bottom of his chin and splash salty little fingerprints of years of pain and torture on his arms. "The villagers….they've….they've….they've…hated me ever since I was a child. They've tried to kill me so many times I've lost count. They've begged for m—m-my execution. If it weren't for Hokage-jiji, I—i-i-I wouldn't be here. I don't even know why I strive to p-p-protect them so much. W-w-w-why should I want to be become a H-hokage to these evil bastards?"

With every word Minato clenched his fist tighter and tighter until his knuckles resembled the color of the white of his coat. Naruto could've sworn he could HEAR the fourth's teeth grinding together in his mouth.

"What's wrong Hokage-_sama?" _Naruto spat out the last part with venom to clearly showing his anger at the fourth for sealing the nine-tails in him._  
_

"Oh Naruto…Naruto…I intended for you to be seen as a hero by this village. It was my dying wish," said the fourth.

"Yeah the villagers really fucked that up didn't they" said Naruto.

"Hey! Watch your mouth" said the fourth.

"Whatever, sheesh you'd think you were my dad or something" said the blonde putting his chin in his hand, looking to the side. "You know, I actually idolize you. I want to be just like you. No…I want to be better than you. You are the milestone that I hope, no I need, to one day surpass."

"In order to do that you're gonna need to be one of the greatest Hokage's ever" said the Fourth.

"I know," said Naruto "but now that I think about it, why should I protect them?"

"…." Minato hung his head.

"Why should I help them, they've beaten me"

"…."

"They've tortured me"

"…"

"They've made my life a living hell"

"…"

"and ever since I was a baby. A BABY crying out loud!" shouted Naruto, tears of anger and hurt spilling down his face.

"Why, why SHOULD I strive for their attention, for their acknowledgment. Why do they deserve. They don't" said Naruto.

"…"

"In fact, they deserve the opposite" he said.

"…"

"They deserve to die the most horrible and painful death by my hands" said the blonde genin.

"…"

"I should let the kyuubi out, I should. Just to show them what a true demon is" said Naruto.

Minato's head snapped up, "Then you'd be proving them right"

"So…it's not like they are ever going to accept me anyways….huh…why are you crying" asked Naruto.

"….that is also for later Naruto….but answer me this….what about those people who ARE already accepting of you. What about those that are your precious people," asked the fourth.

Naruto's eyes grew wide as the faces of Teuchi, Ayame, Iruka, the Third Hokage, Kakashi, Sakura, Sasuke, Zabuza and Haku, Hiashi, and finally, and most importantly, Hinata all flashed through Naruto's mind.

"So? What is your verdict now," asked the Hokage.

"I see now…I should focus less on worrying about the village as a whole and only worry about protecting those that are dear to me…..I've believed this all along really. I just lost myself there for a moment in the sorrow and hatred." Naruto shivers, "thank you Hokage-sama for helping me out."

"You're welcome s….shinobi of the leaf" said the Hokage. "Naruto, I'm sure you'll do fine. Oh, and by the way, be weary of Jaraiya-sensei, he's a great ninja but a lousy role-model," said the hokage.

"What, are you leaving so soon, but we only just got to talk" said the genin.

"Yes, I am about to leave you. I need to go now. Naruto, I need you to do one thing for me," said the hokage.

"What's that" said Naruto.

The fourth moved across the room in a flash of yellow and came face to face with Naruto, "WAKE UP!"

Naruto say upright. He was in a deep sweat. 'What was that dream, it felt so real.'

Naruto looked over and noticed that his clone was still in the lotus position, still being trained by Kyuubi no doubt.

"I wander," he dispelled the clone and got the memories back from the fox, "hey fox, that was a nice training session."

"That it was Naruto that it was" said the fox in Naruto's mind.

Just then a flash bomb came through the window. Naruto had barely had enough time to cover his eyes. As the flash bang went off Naruto felt the presence of an extremely high chakra. While the flash bang was still active Naruto quickly unlocked eight of his relay seals, not wanting to take a chance.

To prove his fears true, a figure jumped in the window. This figure exuded power. He had at least as much chakra as Kakashi-sensei.

'Oh shit what do I do' he thought, "who are you and what are you doing here."

"Oh, we have a brave little fella. You are quite the fire-cracker aren't you. It matters not whether I tell you my name or not, for you will soon be dead. In fact, you can just call me 'Red Death' " said the Ninja as he pulled out a very intimidating looking katana.

Naruto made a couple of clones to go fight him.

'THE Red Death? Oh shit, he's a A-ranked, jonin-level missing-nin from Iwa' thought Naruto, 'while he's distracted. Ninth and tenth relay seals open, also, weight seals need to be deactivated' thought the blonde as he proceeded to take off the weight seals.

Naruto felt so…strong.

"Well, since I'm probably gonna die, can I ask you why you're here, how you got here, and how in the world your chakra isn't alerting the hokage and anbu and jonin that you're here" asked the blonde.

The Ninja explained, "easy, I was hired for a rather hefty sum by some weird as snake-man to come and kill you, as for how I got in; the snake-man told me how to get around the defenses, and I have a multi-layer genjutsu around this room, making it look the same to the outside viewer."

'Shit, oh well' he thought.

"The time for talk is over. Now die," said Red Death.

The ninja came at Naruto at a speed many would've thought was impressive, but Naruto kept up rather easily. Naruto pulled out a kunai and parried the katana and then threw the kunai. It missed and stuck in the wall behind his opponent.

"Where the hell are you aiming kid" said Red Death.

Red Death started to go through some hand signs, "Water style-water sword justu" a very compressed and powerful stream of water came out of the nins mouth and sliced Naruto in half. The ninja smirked before:

Poof.

The ninja's eyes widened, 'what the hell.'

"Wind Style-slicing wind" said Naruto as blades of wind cut through the air toward Red Death who jumped back.

'When did he…ah the kunai it was him henged. But when did he sub with a clone…when the flashbang was still in effect…this kid is pretty good for his age' thought the ninja then he said, "it's too bad, you show some promise for someone quite so young. It's too bad I have to kill you"

The ninja appeared in front of Naruto bringing his sword down. Naruto, not having a kunai in his hand at the moment, forced chakra into his hands and caught the blade. Then he used the agility and the strength he learned from brute fist to flip over the nin, pulling his arm and katana with him so as to put the nin in a hold with his own katana at his neck. Naruto kicked his knees and caused him to buckle forward slightly, then quickly brought the blade around and stabbed into the ninja. The ninja was held in place by the blade Naruto was holding in him through his stomach and back.

"How the hell…" started the ninja.

"I cannot die yet, I have too many goals and too many people to protect" said the blonde.

Naruto placed his hand on the nins' back and said, "Wind style, wind cannon jutsu" said Naruto as he put a significant amount of chakra into the attack. The wind, true to it's name, shot out of Narutos' hand a put a hole six inches in diameter in the middle of the ninjas chest all the way through.

Naruto put his foot on the back of the Ninja and kicked him off of the katana, "pathetic. You're supposed to be an A-ranked missing jonin, I barely even broke a sweat," said Naruto as he picked up the katana's sheath and sheathed the katana, "but I think I'll take this fine sword as a spoil of war".

The blond then thought a moment, unsheathed the sword and separated the nins head from his body, 'can never be too sure' thought the blonde.

Naruto went outside and flared his chakra the shot a flare into the sky. Since Red Death was, well, dead, his Genjustsu released, and since he flared so much chakra it wasn't too long before Anbu and even the hokage appeared.

"Naruto-san., what is the mater" asked the Hokage.

Naruto cut off the relay seals and started to pany, "inside, Red Death, killed him…I'm the best" then he collapsed to the ground.

Naruto awoke in his mindscape.

"Hey fur-ball, how you doing," asked the blonde.

"**I'm fine, well…as fine as a fox can be when he's sealed inside you" said the fox.**

"Whatever, did you see all that" asked the blonde.

"**Yeah I did kid. That was some pretty good moves. I liked how you finished him off" **

"Thanks" said Naruto, "that guy was supposed to be an A-ranked missing jonin from Iwa, but he was pretty easy to kill."

"**Not only are you of jonin-level yourself, but he underestimated you. Which is a fatal mistake obviously. Let that be a lesson to you to never underestimate YOUR opponents" said Kyuubi.**

"I know I know" said the blonde.

"**I think it's time you wake up" said Kyuubi.**

"yeah".

Naruto opened his eyes to an intensely bright light. He quickly pulled the pillow from behind his head and covered his eyes with it. He heard snickering. He looked out from under the pillow and saw Hinata sitting in a chair next to him with her head down and her fist clinched in fist in her pants. Also there were Kakashi, Sasuke, Sakura, Iruka, Haku, Zabuza, and the third Hokage who were the ones snickering.

"Well it seems you're finally awake" said the hokage.

"Thank goodness" cried out Hinata as she ran and hugged him with tears in her eyes.

Naruto looked a little confused, "what did I do?"

The hokage chose to answer, "you battled a ninja that was, or by all accounts should have been, out of your league. It's really a miracle that you came out of it alive. That was a relatively famous ninja from Iwa that you just killed."

"I know, it was pretty difficult" said Naruto adding in his head, 'yeah, to break a sweat.'

"I'm sure it was, so how in the world did you do it Naruto" asked Kakashi.

Naruto was about to tell them all about his heroic struggle for life when his attention came to the easy breathing of Hinata. She had fallen asleep on his chest. 'Aww, she's so cute like that' he said, 'Wait, what am I thinking, she couldn't possibly love me like that. Yeah sure we're best friends, but she is, for all practical purposes, a princess. Why would she love me, and orphan demon container.'

Hinata awoke just then to look in his eyes with a look of pleading, "I'm so glad you're alive" she said as she got up from his chest, kissed him on the cheek, then fainted back into the chair she was in before. Kakashi took out a small packet of smelling salts and woke Hinata.

"We wouldn't want you to miss the story" said Kakashi with an eye smile.

"S-s-s-s-orry" sais Hianta.

"Okay Naruto, so how did you beat the guy again," asked Sasuke.

"Well, it all started when…" he retold them of his fight. Making it more of a struggle than it really was.

"Wow, that's amazing Naruto," said Hinata.

"It is impressive" said Kakahsi to which Sakura, the hokage and SAsuke nodded.

"In fact, there was a rather large bounty on his head. I will see to it that the funds are placed in your account Naruto" said the third.

The group continued to talk for another ten minutes before everyone needed to leave.

"Wait, Hokage-jiji, I need to talk to you" said Naruto.

"Okay Naruto" said the hokage, he nodde to Kakashi and the Cyclops ninja left and the 'Professor' came back into the room.

"What is it you need Naruto-kun" asked the Hokage.

"to tell you why that ninja was in my room in the first place" said the blonde.

"oh yes, I was going to wait until the morning to ask you if you knew why he was there" said the hokage.

The blonde Nodded and continued, "he was hired, by a" he put his hands up in quotation marks, " 'snake man,' ".

Sarutobi's face turned very serious and dark, "Naruto, you are to speak of this to no one, and I mean no one. Not until I give you the go ahead on that person, okay?"

"Crystal clear, but why" asked the blonde.

"That was my former student, Orichimaru of the Sannin who hired him.

"I see" said Naruto.

"This is most distressing. He has been more active lately. I will have to send word to Jaraiya about this" said the hokage.

The blonde nodded, and then the name Jaraiya reminded him of something. Naruto's head snapped up, "Gramps, I had a dream."

"Oh? And what happened in this dream Naruto-kun," asked the Hokage.

"The fourth Hokage appeared to me" said Naruto.

"Really? And what did he do or say" asked the hokage.

"He questioned me on my life's goals and what not. He gave me some really encouraging words" said the blonde, "but What does it mean that he would appear in my dreams. Me of all people. I'm just an orphan."

"I don't know Naruto-kun, I don't know" said Sarutobi but added in his head, 'If you only knew Naruto, if you only knew. It seems I'll be able to tell you of your heritage sooner than I expected, you're becoming quite the powerhouse. I'll do it after the Chuunin exams'.

"Naruto…I sense great things to come from you" said the hokage.

Naruto looked at him happily, "Thank you so much Jiji."

The hokage looked at the twelve year old he considered as another grandson that was now beaming at him. "It's true Naruto, you've progressed farther than your fa…ourth hokage was at your age."

"Wow, that's awesome. I'm so amazing" said the blonde.

Sarutobi just smiled and nodded. "Alright Naruto-kun, you need to get some rest now, you're gonna be very busy over the next couple of weeks."

"And why is that" asked the blonde.

"Why the chuunin exams of course." Said the hokage.


	19. The first test!

**Hey all, time for yet another chapter of Kyuubi's apprentice. Now I know what you're saying. "Mrpeeples, it's been four months you lazy ass!" Well I've been busy and I'm taking two tough classes in the summer term. To put it simply take a hard class that is normally pretty difficult in a full semester, cram it into 4 weeks, and the only available professor is the one that is infamously bad. Ha, still made an A+ in you Elementary Organic Chemistry I (Ch231 at UA). Now I'm in Organic II in the second mini-term before I go back to the paper mill to work a semester. This 'Co-op' is sweet man. Anyways, enough rambling, onto the story.  
"About damn time" said Naruto.  
"Hey! Shut up idiot, you couldn't be a chemical engineer"  
"yeah, and you can't walk on water or up trees" said Naruto.  
"Burn!" said Sasuke.  
"Oh yeah, I can do this"  
"wh…" Naruto noticed his lips were now sewn shut.  
"Hahahahaha, mess with me and get silenced bitch! What are you looking at emo duck-butt, you want some too?"  
"No no no" said Sasuke backing away.  
okay, now, back to the story.**

**Oh yeah, VOTE ON THE POLL PLEASE!**

Chapter 19, The Chuunin exams begin.

Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura were at training ground 7 waiting on Kakashi. He was, based on his usual tardiness, gonnna be there in about an hour to an hour and a half.

"All right," began Naruto, "how about some meditation?"

The two looked at him like he grew another head.

"What," he asked.

"You…and…meditation" said Sakura as she started laughing.

"Hey, I do it all the time" said Naruto.

"**I wish you weren't so loud" Said Kyuubi.**

'Shut it furball' said Naruto to the kyuubi in his mind.

"Anyways, you guys do what you want, I'm meditating" said Naruto as he walked over to a tree, made twenty clones and they all started meditating.

While in his meditative state Naruto began to wander about his life, the meaning of life, his friends, his almost-more-than-friend, the village, his dreams, his victories, his defeats.

'Life is like a race full of obstacles' thought Naruto, 'if it weren't for the leaps, the bounds, the falls, the troughs, the crests, it'd be boring as hell…one must come to find inner peace before they can truly understand the world around them…maybe…I don't know. All I know is that I will never betray those closest to me, nor my village. I will not become a self-fulfilling prophecy. I will prove the village wrong.'

A while later Kakashi poofed into the clearing, "yo" he said while waving.

Sasuke and Sakura stopped their training and said, "hey." They were, after all, used to his tardiness.

"come over here guys I have something for you" said Kakashi as he threw a rock at Naruto who, right before the rock hit him, reached up and pushed it back at Kakashi. 

Kakashi's eyes widened and he thought, 'so he finally used the first bit of that ability…what else will you do naruto.'

Naruto opened his eyes, "what the hell" he said.

"I don't know," said kakashi lying, 'Naruto still needs to get a little more mature before he takes that manipulation up.'

"Anyways, get over here," demanded Kakashi.

Naruto nodded and stood and walked over to the group, "so what is it Kakashi-sensei?"

Kakashi pulled out three forms, "these are for the chuunin exams. You must fill these out and go to room 301 by no later than 4 PM tomorrow."

"All right" said Naruto, "let's train Kakashi-sensei."  
Kakashi shook his head, "no naruto, rest you will need the strength."  
"oh right" said naruto.

"**Idiot" said Kyuubi. **

"Shut up idiot" yelled Naruto.

The other looked at him like he was crazy.

"What, I was talking to myself telling myself not to pester Kakshi-sensei for training right before a big test that will take all of our strength."

The other nodded. Kakashi thought, 'Talking to it now, I'm sure he'll turn it friendly…he'll probably turn the word impossible on its head…just like his father and mother.'

Sasuke and Kakashi both disappeared. Naruto turned to Sakura, "so, wanna go get some ramen?"

"Sure, we can discuss whether or not we should take the test" said Sakura with a smile.

"What? Of course we're gonna take it," said Naruto.

"But…I don't know…I feel like I'll only hold you two back" said Sakura.

"What? Are you kidding? You're the one that holds the team together then Kakashi-sensei isn't there. Could you imagine how much Sasuke and I would be at each other's throats if you weren't there to keep the peace?"

"You have a good point Naruto, you'd kill each other" said Sakura.

"precisely," said Naruto.

"Thanks Naruto," said Sakura as she hugged Naruto.

He hugged back and said, "you're welcome, now let's go get that ramen."

"Naruto, I thought you liked Hinata. I'm gonna tell her you were hugging Sakura. You're gonna get your butt kicked," yelled Konohamaru who appeared out of nowhere.

"Hey! It was just a friendly hug dammit," Naruto yelled as he took chase.

"I'm gonna wring your neck with your stupid scarf" said Sakura also giving chase.

Konohamaru rounded a corner and bounced off the back of a guy in black. The guy turned around.

"What the hell brat…whatch where the hell you're walking" said the cat looking man.

"Kankuro, let it go dimwit, we don't want Gaara to get mad at us" said that blonde next to the guy in black.

"Oh come off it Temari, I just want to have a little fun" said the now identified Kankuro.

'Oh! Sand shinobi. Time to put on my 'baka-mask' and gather some intel on the competition,' thought Naruto.

"hey put me down," Naruto was drug out of his thoughts by Konohamaru's screams.

"hey you," yelled Naruto pointing his finger at Kankuro, "put the kid down or else!"

"or else what brat? Like you could do anything," said Kankuro raising his fist.

As he was about to bring his fist to Konohamaru's face a rock hit his fist. Everyone's attention was turned to Sasuke sitting in a tree, "get lost" he said and crushed a rock in his hand. 

"Who's the new kid" asked Kankuro.

"Yeah, who is the red-head" said Naruto shocking everyone except Gaara.

"Kankuro, you're a disgrace," came a voice from the other side of the tree Sasuke was on. This shocked Sasuke.

'I couldn't even sense him, but Naruto did,' thought Sasuke.

Gaara reappeared next to Temari and Kankuro, "Apologies for my brothers stupidity. He is a fool."

"Sorry Gaara, I just…"

"Shut up! Or I'll kill you," said Gaara then turned to Naruto, "what is your name?"

"Uzumaki Naruto"

"and yours" said Gaara looking at Sasuke.

"Uchiha Sasuke."

"I will kill you both" said Gaara and turned his back and left.

"Weird" said Sakura.

"So…how about we all go get some ramen" said Naruto.

They all, even Sasuke, nodded at that and walked off. Naruto stayed behind a second and made a shadow clone. The clone nodded and took off to the rooftops.

'Now that that's done' Naruto thought then said, "Hey! Wait up for me!"

*next day*

At 3:30 PM the Three Genin walked up to the second floor and saw 3 things. 1) IT was really the second floor and there was a Genjutsu on the sing on the door. 2)two older kids keeping people out. 3)a group of people protesting and one green clad kid get knocked down.

'Hey, that's Hinata's cousin. The one with a superiority complex' thought Naurto.

"Any idiot can see it…it's the second floor fools" said Sasuke.

Then one of the older kids attacked Sasuke, while Sasuke brought up a leg to counter, but both were stopped as the Green clad kid appeared between them.

Naruto didn't hear what was said but though, 'holy shit! He's fast as all get out!'

"**Indeed. There are a lot of strong ones in this group of young ones" said Kyuubi. **

Naruto only nodded. Naruto said, "hey guys, I gotta go to the bathroom right quick."

Naruto ran away to the restroom. Once inside he did use the restroom but then he made two shadow-clones. He and one clone hoisted the other clone up into the vents above the sink. Then Naruto had the other clone transform into a rat and go into the walls.

'There, now I can say I'm thoroughly prepared,' thought Naruto.

"**Good idea Kit" said kyuubi.**

'Thanks,' thought Naruto and he ran to catch up to Sasuke and Sakura.

They were in a room with stair at the side and a big open area in the middle. He arrived just in time to see the beginning of the fight between Lee and Sasuke.

*2 minutes later*

'Wow, that guy wiped the floor with Sasuke' thought Naruto.

"**Yes, he's quite strong…after what he said about the kid in his team I see why the kid might have a superiority complex, the Hyuuga I mean," Said Kyuubi.**

'I guess,' thought Naruto to Kyuubi.

Ten minutes later found them in the test room at their seats. Naruto was right next to Hianta, 'yes' he thought.

'That was weird how that sound guy took out Kabuto…and speaking of kabuto, that guy was too fishy…how did he have all that info…it's not likely, but he might be a spy,' thought naruto.

"**Maybe" said Kyuubi.**

In another five minutes the Genin were taking the tests.

'Good thing I have those clones…hmmm…the objective seems to be to cheat. Aha! They're testing our abilities to gather information' said Naruto.

"**Correct" said Kyuubi.**

Naruto saw the rat-clone come runnin out of the wall, scaring quite a few people and causing a small commotion.

"Ah, a rat!" yelled one Kunoichi from the leaf.

"Ah!" screamed many of the people in the room as a small amount of chaos ensued near the front of the room. The proctor, Ibiki, and all the 'sentinels' eyes were busy.

Naruto used this time to make and dispel a clone to tell the one in the air ducts to come to right above the test room and use a spy glass to get answers from someone who seemed to be doing well.

A few minutes, and a few curses from Ibiki, later the room was once again filled with nothing more than sweating and frustrated Genin.

Naruto suddenly got the memories and started to copy them down onto his paper. 'I'm so awesome!' thought Naruto, 'now for the tenth question!'

"**Lame," said Kyuubi.**

'Shut it furball,' thought Naruto.

They laughed at each other.

Ten minutes later it was time for Ibiki to go over the rules for the tenth question and go over the rules he did.

'Hmmm…he's trying to break us. Ha! I get it. First we have to test our confidence in signing up as a team, then our intelligence gathering ability, and now our mental resolve' thought Naruto.

"**Ummm…duh," said Kyuubi.**

'Shut the hell up you fur-ball,' thought Naruto in his head.

"**Huh? You say something," asked the fox who then said, "hey your teammate, the pink-head, she's about to give up!"**

'Oh shit! I can't come this far for her lack of confidence in her skills screw us over' he raised his hand in the air then slammed it down on the desk, "bring it on Ibiki! I don't care what the risks are, I still have to take this test. If I can't risk this, then how am I going to risk assassinating someone or infiltrating a highly guarded fortress with bare-minimum information? I don't care if I'm a genin for forever, I'll still become HOkage and then you'll answer to me!"

Ibiki smiled, 'damn kid made a few teams stay.'

Ibiki then continued to explain to them how they passed and the importance of courage and intelligence gathering and how bad information could be fatal. In all this he had showed them his scarred head.

An explosion and in through the glass came the weirdest woman Naruto had ever seen.

"Damn Ibiki, this many left," asked the woman.

"Well Anko, we have a little knucklehead," said Ibiki as he motioned to Naruto.

The woman gave Naruto a smile that sent shivers up his spine, "I will call you rabbit. I must thank you rabbit for giving me more rodents to hunt."

She turned to the rest of the class and said, "meet at training ground 44!" Anko then turned back to Naruto and threw a kunai at him, just cutting his cheek, "Run," she said.

Naruto gulped and dashed off.

**All righty that's a wrap for this chapter. Read, review. Hate it, love it. Tell me what you think. Oh, and vote on the damn poll! Just kidding, do what you want. **


	20. Chapter 20

**Hey everyone! Sorry for the really late update. I've been busy with work and school. Please read and review. The poll is still up for now. So far yes to a harem is ahead 12 to 4 over no. So….yeah….don't get mad at me if you don't like harem's I make one, and you don't like it. I'm going to try to incorporate other teams some into the mix. Mainly team 8. **

'What a wonderful day' thought Anko as she cleaned off another dango and flicked the skewer into a tree.

"Arghhhhhh" was heard from the forest nearby.

Anko let out a contented sigh, kicked back on top of a picnic table and said, "What a wonderful day indeed."

Anko had been surprised at how many teams were left over from Ibiki She thought, 'No matter. My test is designed to cut at least half out...but still...that blonde best was interesting.'

Flashback

Anko appeared in the clearing just outside the Forrest of death, "Now just to wait for little rabbit to get he..."

She was cut off by a cold voice behind whispering in her ear, "Here."

On instinct she whirled around with a kunai she instinctively grabbed and threw it and hit nothing but air. Naruto said from a few feet behind her, "What kind of special jonin are you that I could get behind you?"

"I was just letting you get your confidence up rabbit."

Naruto smiled, "Sureeeeee...". Naruto added in his head, 'she's saving face.'

"Okay okay you got me. How the hell did you sneak up on me like that," Anko asked.

**"Kit don't tell her" said the fox in naruto's mind.**

'naw shit'

"hey a ninja has his secrets,"and with that the other teams started showing up.

Naruto's eyes widened as a kusa kunoichi appeared behind Anko. This ninja was POWERFUL. If the chakra radiating off her was any indication. Also, Naruto had unsealed his primary seal and placed on a smaller temporary seal keeping him at about 85% of his full strength and he had not even seen the Ninja moving in until the ninja was already standing still. Naruto shivered. 'This person is at least low-Jonin level. I'll be sure to tell my team to stay away from this one.'

"alright maggots...and rabbit...sign this form."

Flashback end

"That's an interesting one" said Anko.

Another scream

"Hmmm, I should go get more dango."

The radio came to life, "Anko...you'll probably want to come look at this..."

Line break

It had been a relatively easy test so far.

Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura had taken off through their gate and instantly raced off of the main path that they were on. They didn't want to be caught in the open.

"Hey guys…wait a sec," said Naruto.

"Huh? What is it," asked Sakura.

"We have a heaven scroll so I made a few clones that transformed into fleas and then stayed inside of the scrolls of all the other teams. If they have an earth scroll they will dispel, return the memories to me, and we will be able to approximate where a team with an earth scroll is" he said.

"Great thinking dobe," said Sasuki.

"Yeah" said sakura.

"Thanks teme, banshee" replied Naruto to which Sasuke smiled and Sakura 'hmphed'.

"The clones also know to dispel when the team is stationary…so all we really need to do is continue a little ways, set up a small camp in a smart location and fortify the heck out of it" said naruto.

"Good plan" said Sasuke.

###############################

With team 8

"Alright guys what's the game plan" asked Kiba.

"Hinata, could you use your eyes to see where enemy teams are…and could you also see what type of scroll they have," asked Kiba.

She nodded, "I know I can see the teams, but seeing their scroll depends on how they choose to hide their scroll."

Hinata then activated her byakugan. "There's a kusa team….nevermind it's an earthscroll…thank goodness….that woman has the most chakra I've ever seen outside of Naruto, and her's just LOOKS evil" HInata visibly shuddered.

"Well we'll be sure to avoid them" said Shino to which the other two nodded.

"There's one of the mist teams…they have a heaven scroll…they don't have all that much chakra either" said Hinata.

"What are they doing," asked shino.

"They are waiting in some trees. They have a genjutsu activated that acts like a trap. It seems all three of the mist teams are using the same method. I can see right through it and should be able to transfer the view to you shino, then you can have your bugs go and drain their chakra. Kiba can cover me as when I transfer my vision to you I'm temporarily blinded…at least at the beginning stages of this jutsu I am" said hinata."

"Okay, but let us get closer to them" he said as they took off.

'Heh, they fell for it so easily' thought a mist genin, 'the blonde one is a complete idiot.' The mist ninja then pulled out a kunai and let it fly. The kunai held true to it's flight and penetrated straight into Naruto's forehead. The same happened to his two teammates.

"Too easy" said the team leader of the genin as they jumped down.

"Alright, let's search these bodies for a scroll" said another genin.

"Yes" said the leader of their squad.

The genins got busy searching the bodies of team 7 before…

BOOM!

All three clones turned bright white and exploded. The genin were all thrown back and hit trees. Then they were bound to their tree by ninja wire. Finally a pink haired girl jumped down from the tree the leader was bound to and used a genjutsu to get him to tell here where his scroll was. She reached in his jacket and pulled out a scroll, "Naruto!" she tossed it to the team-sealing expert. Sakura turned back to the genin and knocked him out. Sasuke and Naruto, after catching the storage scroll, proceeded to knock out the other two genin.

Naruto looked the seal over, 'I'm just now at advanced sealing level 2, out of 10, but I can tell this seal is completely low quality'.

"Can you open it safely" asked Sasuke.

"Yes teme I can," said Naruto "whoever made this seal did it so hastily. They didn't even put a chakra specific gate in it" they looked at him confused, "it's like a door without a lock. Where the lock would be the chakra channel gate and your specific chakra would be the key"

"so you can just open it" asked Sasuke.

"yep, but still, just in case they have something else sealed in their" Naruto made a shadow clone that took the scroll and walked over to a tree stump and opened the scroll. Nothing happened.

"They must've sealed the exam scroll in this storage scroll when they first saw us coming into their trap" said Sakura.

The two others nodded.

"Hey guys I have to go" said Naruto.

"huh?" asked sakura

"you know, to the bathroom"

"Well then go dobe" said Sauke.

Naruto turned around and was about to go in the bushes when sakura yelled, "Not in front of me you idiot" and she kicked him in the ass and launched him through the trees. 

A naruto shadow clone poofed into existence next to Sasuke, "hey, I'm here just in case anything bad happens I can relay the message back to the boss."

Sasuke and Sakura nodded.

"Wait! How did those clones hold together earlier after being stabbed in the forehead" asked Sakura.

"Seals," said the clone.

"What all can those things do anyways," asked Sasuke.

"A whole lot" said Naruto.

Meanwhile with the real Naruto.

"Ahhh, that's much better" said Naruto as he finished up his business.

He turned around to walk back to his team. As he turned around he came face to face with the kusa nin from before.

"Hello Naruto-kun…ku ku kui…aww…are you scared" taunted the creepy Kusa nin.

Naruto steeled his nerves and calmed down. He prepared for anything to happen. However, in the blink of an eye he was slammed on the top of the head by the nin. 'Damn she's fast' thought the blonde as his face quickly met the ground. Or it would have if it hadn't been for the kusa nin bringing her foot up to literally kick Naruto like a football, punting him away. The nin the performed a summoning jutsu and summoned a snake beneath Naruto which swallowed him whole.

"I can't die as snake food," shouted Naruto as he made a few hundred clones that bursts the snake. Doing so also alerted his clone with sasuke and sakura.

With Sasuke and Sakura.

"It sure is taking Naruto a long time," said Sakura.

"Hn"

"Huh" said the clone looking up.

"What is it" asked Sakura.

"Be on the lookout…boss just had his ass handed to him. Be careful because boss is temporarily indisposed of at the moment."

Just then Naruto walked into their line of sight and said , "Hey guys, how you doing?"

"Great…say Naruto come here, "said Sasuke pulling out their scroll, "can you show me something on this?"

"Sure" said Naruto as he walked over 'ku ku ku…let me test you Sasuke-kun.'

"Could you put some chakra into this storage scroll, I need to see something inside" asked Sasuke handing one of his storage scrolls over to Naruto.

'If it's really Naruto he'll know that his chakra won't work and only mine will…considering it was he who made the scroll for only me to use' thought Sasuke.

"Sure hand it over" said 'Naruto.'

Sasuke handed it over, 'good thing that's an empty scroll' throught Sasuke. Just when 'Naruto' pushed chakra into the scroll Sasuke and Sakura leapt back and an explosion shook the forrest.

Sasuke threw a barrage of shuriken into the dust cloud that was formed.

"That scroll has a seal on it to where it only opens to my specific chakra. Naruto himself made it for me, so he should've known what it was and that it was booby trapped so that if anyone else tries to force it open it explodes. You can drop the act imposter," said Sasuke. Sakura simply nodded.

"Ku ku ku ku ku…my my my, you are pretty smart aren't you Sasuke-kun" said the nin as the henge dropped and revealed the Kusa nin. "Let's see how you compare to Itachi though."

This statement enraged Sasuke. It took all his will power not to rush the Kusa nin, "how do you know Itachi!?"

"My my, so impatient," said the Kusa nin.

Suddenly the very air itself was saturated with so much killer intent that it felt like a liquid killer intent was hangin in the air.

'This is insane!' thought Sasuke as he and both Sakura froze. They saw their deaths. They saw as the kusa nin pulled out two kunai and, with a simple flick of the risk, sent the two kunai soaring into both of their heads. 'No! No! No! No!' thought Sasuke, 'I have to get stronger to avenge my clan!'

Sasuke took out a kunai and stabbed himself in the leg. He grabbed Sakura and disappeared just as two real kunai whizzed by where their heads used to be.

'That was a close one' thought Sasuke.

"Sasuke, wh…" he covered her mouth.

He said in a soft voice, "shh…we need to be quiet."

She nodded.

Just then a giant snake came at them. Sasuke threw shuriken at it and killed it.

Their victory was short-lived, however, when from within the snake the Kusa nin rose.

"Come Sasuke-kun…let us see if you are worthy of my gift."

"Keep your gift to yourself" said the Kusa nin.

"Don't you want to be as strong as Naruto-kun" asked the kusa nin.

Sasuke hesitated. "Shut up!"

Sasuke then offered one of their scrolls in exchange for free passage. At this time Naruto showed up and slugged Sasuke.

"Naruto! What was that for," screamed Sakura.

"You must be a fake Sasuke, because the Sasuke I know would never back down from a challenge. How could you achieve that goal of yours if you always ran away" said Naruto.

Sasuke furrowed his brow and smiled, "you're right dobe. Thanks….damn you hit hard!"

"Sakura…Sasuke and I are going to team up on this guy. You stay back and support with your genjutsu when you can and be sure to keep a look out for any other ninja snooping around" said the blonde.

Sakura nodded.

Sasuke and Naruto stood next to each other.

"A or B" asked Naruto.

"B" said Sauke.

Naruto's face was split with a grin.

The kusa nin had been quiet…just waiting.

Naruto made three clones. They both grabbed Naruto and flung him high into the air as Sasuke threw many shuriken at the enemy nin.

The two shadow clones then ran at the nin and began to engage him in a taijutsu fight. The nin was just toying with him it was obvious. Just then, however, a fireball came roaring at the Kusa nin, who smirked and raised a mud wall in front of herself. Then a futon jutsu crashed into the kusa nin from above.

'Damn , I forgot about that idiot' thought the Kusa nin. The Nin was forced to jump back, but didn't notice that he had just backed into a tree. Ninja wire wrapped around her and then Sasuke sent a fire jutsu down the ninja wire and then Naruto used a futon: great gust of fury that greatly enhanced the power and speed of the fire jutsu.

'Did we get him' wandered Sasuke.

'No, that was way too easy,' thought Naruto.

"Ku ku ku ku…you two are simply amazing," said Orochimaru.

The nin revealed himself by rising from the branch of the tree they were standing on. The only damage noticeable was the kusa nin's face seemed like it was falling off. No wait, 'It is falling off!'

The kusa nin reached up and peeled off her face revealing it was actually a 'he' not a 'she.'

"I simply must have you both" the snake said as he extended his neck towards the two.

Both Sasuke and, surprisingly, Naruto froze from the sheer amount of killing intent the nin was putting out. Likely just to make them freeze.

"**Kit! Get the hell out of there!"**

Naruto snapped out of his stupor and pushed Sasuke out of the way as the Kusa nin's fangs sank into Naruto's neck. Naruto screamed in pain and then his world started to turn dark.

"**Kit!...can….hear me…what….on…it's invading….hold it off….."**

Naruto collapsed. 

"Naruto!" both Sasuke and Sakura shouted.

"ku ku ku, you should worry about yourselves. Especially you dear Sasuke-kun," said Orochimaru.

"Orochimaru!" someone screamed as they landed between Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura and Orochimaru.

"Ohhhhh Anko-chan. Fancy seeing you her…how have you beeeen" he asked like a snake, licking his lips, "I am just trying to acquire a new boooody."

"The blonde or the Uchiha" asked Anko.

"Both" said Orochimaru.

"Tough shit then" said Anko.

"I guess I should take my leave but Sasuke, if you ever want the real power required to kill Itachi you will have to quit PLAYING ninja in this weak village. Come to me and I will make your ambition come to fruition" He turned to Anko, "But be warned, if you stop the chuunin exams the hidden leaf will feel my unbridled rage," And then he sank into the tree.

Everyone there shivered.

"Brats! Do you have both scrolls?" they nodded.

"Okay, go find some place safe and rest then book it to the tower. I need to report this to the hokage asap. Here, this is an alert seal, if anything were to happen put chakra into this seal and it will summon me here" said anko handing a seal to Sasuke.

The two nodded, picked up their team mate and took off.

"Damn you Orochimaru…what the hell are you planning besides taking the Uchiha" said Anko as she took off to the hokage tower.


End file.
